The Pitch: California deathcore crew Impending Doom delivery their latest album via Entertainment One. "This is musical blunt force trauma, from a personal place of desperate salvation and resolve. No competition, no compromise, no careerism." FFO: Cabal, Whitechapel, Thy Art Is Murder
What I Like: I haven't shared a lot of deathcore this year; not because I don't like the genre, but because there's a lot of generic crap to sift through. And while Impending Doom may not sport the most original sound either, they still captured my attention with their consistency and unholy heaviness. You get the usual downtuned grooves, death growls, and nü-metal leanings (they list Slipknot and Deftones as influences), but these forces are applied with an admirable level of focus. Visualize writing a deathcore album as being handed stick told to go nuts with it. Where many bands would just start swinging, Impending Doom whittle it down to a perfectly balanced, razor sharp instrument of death. It's the same raw materials, but with greater attention to effeciancy and lethality.
Critiques: All that said, this is still not mind-blowing stuff. I'd be interested to hear them expand their boundaries. I like the electronic touches that pop up here and there, especially on closing track "Run For Your Life (She Calls)." Fusing a few more fresh ideas could take this to the next level.
The Verdict: Impending Doom keep things lean and mean with ten tracks that deliver some serious blunt force trauma without an ounce of filler. That's more than I can say of even the most celebrated albums in the genre. If you dug our stream of Cabal, this is right up you're alley.
Flight's Fav's: EVIL, Paved With Bones, Unbroken, Devil's Den
- Review by FlightOfIcarus
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