Albums

Album Review: Whitechapel

[Album: This Is Exile]
[Label: Metal Blade]

Whitechapel are described as the “leaders of the New X-treme” in their press release – which I take to be something to do with their status as somewhat of a MySpace phenomenon. With well over 2 million plays, they’re obviously appealing to someone.

The first thing that seems to come up when Whitechapel is mentioned is the fact that they have three guitarists. The thing is that this is a record and not a live show. A one guitarist band doesn’t suffer on CD, because that guitar will be overdubbed two, three or even more times - Pig Destroyer’s Scott Hull uses eight guitar tracks to make up for the lack of a bassist. So having three guitarists is not a selling point for an album – it doesn’t have anything like the kind of impact it does on stage. In fact, it can make the songs sound unbalanced because mixing three guitars mucks up the symmetry – you can’t just pan them left and right, but anything in the centre plays havoc with the snare, kick, bass and vocals.

To be honest, it’s not until the third track, ‘Possession’, that the three guitars are even used to full effect. When it is used, it’s done pretty well, but there’s very few moments (if any) with the three-part harmonies I was hoping for. It’s overused as a gimmick in the PR material but underused musically, which is a shame, because it’s not an important part of the band – it’s up there with making sure your female singer stands right in the centre of all the band photos.

As it is, the whole album is tight, punchy and well played. These guys can certainly write some good riffs and they move from section to section seamlessly. There are a few almost Meshuggah-esque parts which actually blend really well with the melodic death-metal – it’ something I’ve not really heard before, but definitely something I’d like to hear more of again if it’s this well done.

One thing that really annoys me about the goregrind/”br00tal” death metal scene (seemingly left over from the hardcore influence) is the amount of open-string chugging. This is a prime example; it feels like almost half of the album is made up of syncopated perfect fifths. That’s a huge exaggeration, I’m sure, but it certainly felt like it after the first listen – there’s a section in the title track where I had serious concerns that it would never end.

Towards the end of the CD, they start to mix things up, and there are some great moments with a few electronic and synthy bits put in. The last track, ‘Messiahbolical’, and the instrumental ‘Of Legions’ leading into it are two of the stand out tracks in my opinion – a whole album of tracks like those two would be a little bit more engrossing as they’re more layered and give up more on repeated listens. ‘Possession’ has some great moments too, though again there’s a big chunk of chugging that spoils the middle of the song, or me, because I lose my concentration.

The sound is clinical, like everything in this style really. It’s all very dry and clean, and the kick is refreshingly natural (it doesn’t just click; there’s some meat to it). The guitars are nice and chunky, though I’d prefer a more noticeable difference between each one. As it is, all three sound virtually the same, which is another mark against the three guitar line-up. The problems I mentioned earlier don’t show themselves though; there are no issues with the third guitar sticking out in the mix or focusing the attention to one side of the stereo field. The vocals are pretty much guttural death-grunt; there are some nice higher screams in there, but they’re quite rare – I’d prefer a bit more variety but it won’t be a huge issue to fans of the genre. The bass player is left out in the cold, which is no surprise given how little space they normally get with two guitarists. It’s a touch drum heavy, but when the drums sounds nice it’s not a problem. There is one major plus-point too: the plague of the genre is missing; there aren’t any sub-drops that I’ve noticed. Hallelujah!

As Whitechapel’s MySpace plays show, they’ve clearly got a fan base, and with a solid second album like this they’re likely to win a few more people over too. I have to admit I have some slightly damning preconceptions of this genre, but this is a decent album, and one that I’ll probably listen to after I’m done reviewing it. It’s not really breaking any new ground, but it’ll certainly leave an imprint on the well-trodden dirt it stands in, and there are a few glimmers of some interesting songs to come.

For Fans Of: Job For A Cowboy, The Black Dahlia Murder, Annotations Of An Autopsy

Band Link:
Whitechapel

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