What a spectacular return to form. This might be the first time a band has actually lived up to their claim that “this will be our heaviest album yet.”
For a band that is almost 20 years in, it is inspiring to see such a fierce comeback. Whitechapel started at the same time as Suicide Silence in 2007-2008, a vicious one-two punch that dominated the deathcore genre for several years. Many people consider Phil Bozeman to be one of the best deathcore vocalists of all time, and he undoubtedly solidified his iconic status with his live performance of “Unanswered” at Mitch Lucker’s memorial show. The fact that I was at that show and saw it live is one of my favorite concert memories.
Whitechapel’s career has been surprisingly dynamic. Their first album, ‘Somatic Defilement,’ was based on Jack The Ripper’s brutal murders of prostitutes in Whitechapel, England. That’s the inspiration behind the band’s name. And in that light, their beginnings do seem somewhat gimmicky and one-dimensional. That said, the vocal work and sense of narrative on ‘Somatic Defilement’ is insane, and it remains one of my favorite deathcore albums to this day.
It’s important to keep in mind that deathcore was still extremely new during this time period. While its predecessors date back to the late 90’s, and some bands like Despised Icon and The Red Chord began to gain popularity in the early 2000’s, it wasn’t until Job For A Cowboy’s ‘Doom’ EP in 2005 that the genre really started to take form. Bring Me The Horizon’s debut album, ‘Count Your Blessings’ came out in 2006, and Whitechapel released ‘Somatic Defilement’ in 2007. This timeline highlights that Whitechapel was a huge player in deathcore’s early days. The genre was just beginning to reach “commercial success,” and bands were flying blind – literally pioneering a new genre they had just invented – while trying to chart a course to success.
That is why it is so impressive that Whitechapel had the foresight to abandon the serial killer theme (instead of doubling and tripling down *cough* Ice Nine Kills *cough*) and expand into new areas. ‘This Is Exile’ and ‘A New Era of Corruption’ primarily contain anti-religious and anti-corruption themes. In general, they focus on the world and offer social and political commentary. They also shift from a blood-spattered, shock-value style of deathcore to a more mature sound that, in my opinion, has some stronger death metal elements. ‘A New Era of Corruption’ also has a bonus track (that isn’t available on Spotify for some reason) about Phil’s mom, foreshadowing the lyrical content focused on his upbringing that we see in future albums.
Whitechapel’s self-titled album in 2012 had a lot of great songs, but it was the first to show some signs of weakness. It started the band’s trajectory towards a much friendlier version of deathcore that dominated ‘Our Endless War’ in 2014 and completely consumed ‘Mark of the Blade’ in 2016. All three of these albums feature a saw blade with three stars on the cover art. It was a cool reference to the Tennessee flag that combined the barbed wire aesthetic of the first two albums with the “blade” idea that featured prominently in these three albums. Unfortunately though, it became a symbol for “boring deathcore but Phil’s mids are powerful so it isn’t entirely bad.” The singing on “Bring Me Home” also foreshadowed the band’s desire to experiment with softer sounds.
Thankfully, by 2019 Whitechapel was done with the boring deathcore and “blade” stuff. ‘The Valley’ featured a completely different sound that pulled together elements hinted at on previous albums – lyrics focused on Phil’s parents and clean singing. All things considered, it was a tasteful transition, and fans’ embraced this new, introspective direction. For better or worse, Whitechapel also inspired other deathcore bands (who were a lot less qualified to sing) to experiment with adding clean vocals.
In 2021, ‘Kin’ took the experimentation a step further, incorporating even more singing. While it had some strong songs, the initial appeal of hearing a soft version of Whitechapel had worn off, and a looming question began to take shape: What is Whitechapel? They had evolved so much over the years, was there any part of their core identity left? Or had it been accidentally overwritten, discarded years ago without realizing?
‘Hymns In Dissonance’ provides a clear answer. Underneath the singing and songs reflecting on past trauma, the beast is still alive.
In some respects, ‘Hymns In Dissonance’ is Whitechapel’s heaviest album ever. Bozeman has done high screams in the past, but they are particularly startling this time around. “A Visceral Wretch” also contains deep, gurgling lows and a section of screams purposely meant to evoke feelings of disgust as Bozeman describes forced cannibalism.
Another strength of this album is its world-building. Whitechapel doesn’t get enough credit for creating compelling atmospheres, and as I mentioned before, Phil’s vocal style works really well when telling a story because his incredible range can be split out into different segments that give the impression of scene changes and a backdrop filled with characters. ‘Hymns In Dissonance’ follows the story of a cult leader gathering people to join his cult, and that’s why there are references to religious ideas and demonic rituals (symbolized by Phil singing words backwards, like at the end of “Prisoner 666” and start of “Hymns In Dissonance”).
I don’t want to focus on the title track too much, but “Hymns In Dissonance” is critical to understanding this album. Most importantly, the lyrical section that starts with “I am the last living son of the father of lies” begins a four-line callback to the titles of five songs from their 2008 album, ‘This Is Exile.’ A few passages later, callbacks to four other songs are included. We’ve seen Phil do this before (e.g., the first two lines of the opening track to ‘Make It Bleed’ reference the previous three Whitechapel albums), and it draws a cool connection that typically symbolizes some kind of shift. In this case, Whitechapel is obviously signaling their return to the style from ‘This Is Exile.’
While the heaviness gets a lot of attention, I appreciate the return of Whitechapel’s early grooviness. Complimented by Phil’s vocal flow, and surrounded on both sides by blast beats and chaos, Whitechapel occasionally finds itself content with chugging through slower riffs that rock back and forth. “Bedlam” and “Mammoth God” are the first examples that come to mind. Phil’s vocals are at the forefront, dictating the musical direction, and the songs repeatedly fall back on melodic sensibilities.
Looking towards the future, who knows what’s next for these titans of deathcore. Listening through their discography to freshen up my memory for this review made one thing clear: Whitechapel never stands still. They have at least four different eras, and that creative diversity has resulted in an incredible collection of deathcore songs.
In some ways, ‘Hymns In Dissonance’ is more of a return to the past than innovation of a new sound, but the fact that Whitechapel genuinely wanted to make a ridiculously heavy album again, and then actually did it, is so cool. It’s the opposite of the failure that we just saw with Architects – a band that returned to heavy music because they failed to get traction with their softer material. In contrast to that, Whitechapel had major success with ‘The Valley’ and ‘Kin,’ undoubtedly expanding their fanbase while inspiring a new wave of deathcore with clean singing, but they also still had heavy, evil music in their hearts. This album’s authenticity cannot be denied. My main conclusion is that ‘Hymns In Dissonance’ is a new take on the band’s style from 17 years ago while also letting the guys have fun writing heavy music again.
Whitechapel // Hymns In Dissonance
Categories: Reviews
