“There is nothing nice about Hymns In Dissonance,” says Whitechapel guitarist Alex Wade in the press release of his band’s new album. A little later, frontman Phil Bozeman contributes “Hymns In Dissonance is a mockery of the true nature of what hymns are.” There’s actually a fair few noteworthy tidbits here, but the one that conjures up the greatest amount of thought comes from Bozeman again, as he discusses the opener Prisoner 666—“[it] feels like the 2014-2021 Whitechapel morphing back into the 2006-2010 Whitechapel and continuing the 2006-2010 era for the rest of the album.”
So what exactly can be gleaned from that? Well, if you tie those context clues together, things might seem a little questionable. On its face, it’s the usual bit of spin that always accompanies albums like this; “heaviest album to date” is a verbatim phrase used here, too. But you can always dig deeper and reveal a reading where Whitechapel are giving the game away and parading their own regression. They’ve bisected their own career to canonise a point where their deathcore became something more, seemingly for the purpose of rescinding it. If they were to do that, it’d be an awful look when The Valley and Kin were their most richly creative and evocative albums ever as a result of being more than ‘just deathcore’. But you know what metal fans can be like—if it’s not a clone of something they’ve heard incalculable times before, it gets dropped like it was worthless to begin with. And if Whitechapel’s priority is pandering to deathcore lobotomites over their own staggering growth…well, let’s just say things could be in better order.
As far as those assertions are concerned, there’s not no truth to them. Hymns In Dissonance does indeed hark back most to the more uncut sound last seen in full on Whitechapel’s 2012 self-titled album, or maybe even 2008’s This Is Exile, to which this is apparently a spiritual sequel. To that end, there’s been a lot removed that was crucial in defining Whitechapel over the last decade. Gone is any trace of nu-metal or insidious restraint (save for the required interlude Ex Infernis), and there’s not a clean vocal utterance to speak of. There’s also a less beguiling lyrical narrative, now settling for some fine-yet-familiar mimeographing of the deathcore playbook. A satanic cult leader manifesting the seven deadly sins is all well and good, but compared to the tangible human horror of a home life steeped in addiction and physical and mental anguish, it’s a little same-old for the genre, no?
So, is that it, then? Have Whitechapel prematurely taken themselves over the hill for no reason, adequate or otherwise? It’d seem that way on its face, and for the majority of bands in this position, they would sink so deeply into the deathcore stupor that they’d appear a lost cause. Whitechapel, however, are the anomaly. They weren’t kidding about past and present eras being blended; Hymns In Dissonance could only come from a band with almost two decades of experience. This sort of onslaught takes time to perfect, and know-how beyond the genre abstract to make it last.
Naturally, then, in lieu of replacing the parts they’ve subtracted, Whitechapel’s tactic is to go all in on the slaughterfest. They’re two up on ambitious pull-quotes being correct when this might actually be their heaviest album yet. Having three guitarists can work wonders in that scenario as they send an infernal low end plummeting further and harder, all the way down to where Bozeman’s brimstone roar might be the most inhuman it’s ever sounded. If the opening note of Diabolic Slumber were actually outsourced to a real netherworld denizen, it wouldn’t be shocking in the slightest. Special mention needs to go the drummer Brandon Zackey, though, for no other reason than possessing the stamina to eviscerate his kit without a single beat missed. When the title track or A Visceral Retch begin to eye up black-metal styles, the drumming simply feels out of this world.
It goes without saying that the whole thing is leagues more impressive that whatever tossed-off derision a deathcore tag may inspire. Perhaps you remember Suicide Silence’s Become The Hunter in 2020, which strove for a major course correction after their out-there self-titled album, and ultimately was ‘just a deathcore album’? Well, Hymns In Dissonance is like the good ending to that story. Granted, it helps that Whitechapel never had to deal with the same scorn and mockery for their experiments, though that just strengthens the point. By no means is this a kneejerk hail-Mary back to perceived safety; even in its most ‘generic’ moments, there’s intent to go off. It’s a must-have when you live a genre that’s basically got one trick to go off, which Whitechapel subsequently parlay into a gralloching hook on Hate Cult Ritual, or some of the hardest line deliveries that’ll be put to record this year on Bedlam or Mammoth God.
If you want to simplify that even further, Hymns In Dissonance operates on a scale that towers over most of its field. There’s the inaccuracy in the press statements—on an album this enormous and grand and unfalteringly refined, you can’t say there’s “nothing nice” about it. Even the way that none of that impedes on this portal to hell’s gaping maw is nice, in a fashion. You can especially tell how much that influenced Whitechapel’s design philosophy, not only for how frequently they nail it, but also how little they feel tied down to deathcore in the way that so many are. They’re here because they want to be and could easily do something else; they’ve proven that empirically. So when songs like Mammoth God and Nothing Is Coming For Any Of Us feed in their soaring, non-‘-core’ moments, they’re among the very best of the album. It’s true of the latter especially, with the capstone moment of an immense rush of clean guitar that’s a true highlight of Whitechapel’s catalogue, full stop.
Perhaps the greatest praise that can be awarded to Hymns In Dissonance, though, is that it never feels as though anything has been taken away. There’s never a conspicuous gap or an uneven pit where something once was; that just doesn’t happen. And while, in the grand scheme of deathcore and its adjacencies, The Valley and Kin were more interesting listens, you’d get nowhere in asserting that Hymns In Dissonance is looking backwards. What it lacks in the brand new, it’s overflowing with refinement and invigoration, and keeps pouring more in on top. If you’re talking about ‘basic’ deathcore, this might as well be the be-all and end-all now, ‘cause no one is surpassing this. Deathcore bands aren’t just throwing out albums this good on a casual day, after all. With the grace of God or Satan themselves, most wouldn’t even have a prayer.
For fans of: Lorna Shore, Brand Of Sacrifice, Fit For An Autopsy
‘Hymns In Dissonance’ by Whitechapel is released on 7th March on Metal Blade Records.
Words by Luke Nuttall
