Whitechapel – This is Exile
Metal Blade Records

(4/5)

You want gruesome, all-American Deathcore? Here it is! Just two tracks into Whitechapel’s newest album This is Exile, I could tell this album had what it takes to be a sick album! If I’ve said it once (or multiple times as it seems on this site), Deathcore and Death metal are by far not my favorite styles, but that may be changing with bands like Whitechapel and Carnifex. The overall level of brutality is THROUGH THE ROOF! The excessive amounts of blast beats always throw me off, but that is made up with the sickness of the other parts of the material. On top of the musical aspects, Phil Bozeman’s vocals are absolutely killer and accent the music very nicely. As far as the tracks on the album go, definitely check out “Father of Lies” (Track 1), “This is Exile” (Track 2/Title Track), and “To All That Are Dead” (Track 4). These three tracks are three small of examples of the true brutality that is Whitechapel! My advice to fans of Deathcore and Death metal is to get a copy of This is Exile as soon as possible and definitely check these guys out live; they are sick live!

Darkest Hour takes Wilmington venue by storm…

On February 1st, 2008, Victory Records band Darkest Hour headlined the second show of their current tour, The Doomsayers 2008 Tour with supporting bands Cephalic Carnage, Emmure , and Whitechapel. Having the interesting mix of styles in that small venue made for one explosive night!

The first band to hit the stage was Deathcore band, Whitechapel. Although Deathcore (or Death metal for that fact) is not my favorite style of music, I thought their set was pretty good. With the venue as packed as it was, it was hard to see what was really going on during their set, but they definitely seemed to have the makings for a good Deathcore band with pretty good stage presence. Again, they weren’t my favorite, but worth seeing if you’re into Deathcore or Death metal.

The next band to take the stage was Victory Records band, Emmure. These guys were pretty amazing on stage! Their music was great, their stage presence was awesome…this was a band worth seeing. If you saw these guys outside of a show, you might not actually think they were in a Metal band because of the way they dress and whatnot, but they easily proved that they have talent in the area of playing Metal while performing!

The third band to play that night was Death metal band, Cephalic Carnage. To be honest, I didn’t really like them at all! There was obvious talent in a couple of the members, but together they were HORRIBLE! It sounded like a bunch of noise. There was maybe one part in their entire performance that made any sense at all. I’m not just saying this because I’m not really a Death metal fan, but I am speaking from what I saw. However, some people who were there did like their set, so they must be doing something right. I didn’t see whatever it is they are doing right, but maybe it’s just me. Perhaps it was also a bit hard to look past the fact that two of the members looked old enough to be my dad!! The vocalist looked like a Death metal version of Carlos Santana with a beer gut! Oh well, it was only a wasted 30 minutes of life. I can go without that.

Finally, it was time for DARKEST HOUR!!! If there is one word that can describe their show, it’s AMAZING! This five-piece had everything it takes to be a great band. They had awesome music, great stage presence, top notch skills…they have it all. They really made it worth 3 hours of driving to go see them at their only NC stop on the tour. I was fortunate enough to catch up with them after the show to hang out for a few minutes and get an interview with their drummer, Ryan Parrish. In getting that interview, I found out that Ryan’s influences actually came from listening to Death metal when he was around the age of 12. these guys were awesome to see live and they’re all great guys to hang out with. If you ever get the chance to see them perform live, do it!

All in all, the whole night was great and I had a really good time being back in Wilmington to witness this great show!