Albums

Album Review: All Shall Perish

[Album: Awaken The Dreamers]
[Label: Nuclear Blast]

James Murphy (the other guy from Death to get a brain tumour) once complimented my guitar tone - as one of the best melodic soloists in death metal, I was pretty damn stoked. It’s a weak link, but the fact that California’s All Shall Perish mention Mr. Murphy in their bio immediately warmed me to them. Did the music help further that fuzzy feeling? Hell yeah it did!

Listed as “Deathcore” everywhere I looked, I’d actually say their sound is way more diverse than that. There’s a heap of technical grindcore in there, a bunch of death metal, a touch of sludge and even some lighter moody touches. For the most part, it’s not a million miles away from Carcass’ ‘Heartwork’ in a broad sense – heavy like lead, but not afraid to throw some melodic sensibilities into the crucible.

The thing that really sets them apart from a lot of their contemporaries is that they’ve taken to time to craft proper riffs – catchy, hooky guitar parts that get stuck in your head. The fact I can’t think of another band of their ilk that can do that this well is impressive enough, but when you consider how quick most of the riffs are, it’s a remarkable feat of song writing.

From the opening riff of ‘When Life Meant More…’, there was a big smile on my face. It’s all a bit silly and over the top, but in the best possible way – stupidly quick sweep-picking, knock-you-on-your-ass time changes, and every kind of screamed vocal from cookie monster lows to 3 Inches Of Blood highs (and a few pig squeals). Yet for all the technicality and speed, the songs don’t feel cluttered and don’t overwhelm you – there’s still a strong enough heart that you can nod your head to every bit.

It’s hard to pick a best song, because the whole album is strong, though the title track is a real corker. Enclosed between two very gentle tracks - the instrumental ‘The Ones We Left Behind’ and the softly sung ‘Memories Of A Glass Sanctuary’, both played on glassy, clean guitars (it’s a real showman’s song) with some ridiculous tapping on both guitars and bass. ‘Songs For The Damned’ is a great way to end as well, with some of the slowest playing and least aggressive vocals (just about carrying a melody). There are three instrumental tracks, but they aren’t just fillers; they really do help the flow of the album.

There are plenty of other bits that will make you grin too. The intro to ‘Never… Again’ starts with a gorgeous arpeggio, followed by the guitars playing slightly different time signatures (playing 6/4 against 4/4 is a great trick). I love the thick, slow guitars and mazy tom work on the second instrumental track ‘From So Far Away’ too, and just as you think they’ve cut back on the crazy guitar work the epic sweeping kicks in and you almost want to laugh.

My only real gripe is that, for a band with all this technical prowess, there are still moments of one-note chugging. Thankfully they’re kept short, and there’s almost always a lead played over them after a few bars, but it still doesn’t sit well with me – Napalm Death and Deicide don’t do it and they’re the kind of bands these guys are influenced by.

The sound is solid, nothing groundbreaking but everything is more or less in the right place. The vocals are handled well with the full range all sounding right in your face. The drums are a bit one-dimensional and the toms sound like they’re all the same size, but they’re perfectly placed in the mix. I will say this though; “Left Guitarist” gets all the interesting parts. “Right Guitarist” plays basic rhythm, nothing else. If a riff changes, “Lefty” changes first. It’s not that unusual an approach, but for some reason it really sticks out on this CD. It doesn’t affect the listening in the slightest, it just twigged my curiosity. Much kudos goes to the mixing engineer for making the bass audible; he may follow the guitars a lot of the time but when he gets his moment to shine he’s right there at the front of the mix.

All-in-all, this is a good album. I’d heard of the band before but never really listened to them, and on the basis of this I intend to check out their back catalogue ASAP. The songs are fairly immediate, but there’s enough going on that you keep picking up new details on repeated listens. It’s heavy but still focused, musical but not excessively so, and there’s bits you can play back in your head all day long without getting tired of them. At just over 36 minutes long it’s concise too and with barely a note wasted. I think this one will be staying in my CD player for a while.

For Fans Of: Bleeding Through, Bring Me The Horizon, The Red Chord

Band Link:
All Shall Perish

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