All Shall Perish-Awaken the Dreamers

I really, REALLY don't like deathcore. I've never seen the attraction to what I think is watered down death metal with misogynistic lyrics and a giant abundance of breakdowns. The closest thing I've ever come to liking within the genre was Glass Casket and the Red Chord, and most would consider those bands more akin to metalcore than the dreaded genre mentioned at the beginning.

But at the request of many people I know, I was urged to listen to this album. People told me it was "fuckin sick" and "brutal" which will never really sway me, but when I heard the word "diverse" being thrown around, I scoffed, but was now intrigued. I was never a fan of ASP's previous material, though I didn't hate the band. They were one of the originals in this now stagnant and stale genre, and like Job for a Cowboy (another band I've never been fond of), I can't really blame them for turning the term/genre into the joke that it's become (I'd give that dubious "honor" to bands like Carnifex, Suicide Silence, and Emmure, who have nothing but plagiarize more successful bands and dumb it further to appeal to the lowest common denominator).


The first song "When Life Meant More..." kicks off with an intro that reminded me of Decapitated, which leads into an okay death metal groove. I already hear some vocals in the middle that remind me somewhat of James Hetfield. Seriously. A little cheesy, but it raised my eyebrow. Some great solos are unfortunately ruined by cutting into a rather bland breakdown. Hopefully this doesn't become a pattern here.

Everyone told me about how awesome "Black Gold Reign" was and I gotta say...they're mostly right. 2/3 of the track consists of some appreciated nods to the gothenburg scene (which about 90% of the American metal scene now owes much to), but the other third's experimentation falls flat. Their (to my knowledge) first foray into power metal sounds like a drunken, bearded guy singing 3 Inches of Blo....hey wait a minute!

The guitars in "Never...Again" are actually charmingly over the top. They also sound strikingly similar to a video game soundtrack. The same sort of groove/half breakdown returns from the first song, but without the repetitive breakdown that ruined that song's ending. Pretty solid.

We get an instrumental break next that is actually fairly refreshing, though it's a shame that it's only a minute or so long. So far, this is much more of a melodic album than I thought it would be. Most of the experimenting (if you call singing clean experimenting) isn't too grating.

The title track tries to force some Opeth influence in , and is rather commendable for their first try. But uh oh, it allllmost goes into a typical "bro chant," one of the things that I have always despised about the genre. Keep the bro chants in youth crew hardcore please. Thankfully, it's saved by another melodic chorus and catchy riff towards the end.


"Memories of a Glass Sanctuary" sounds like the band had a day off and made the decision to smoke dope and blast "Damnation" on repeat. It's a rather soft song that you could probably give to your girl, so long as the name wouldn't drive her away. Trust me, trying to make a member of the opposite sex who ISN'T a fan of aggressive music appreciate artists with names like "Napalm Death" and "Vital Remains" is a pretty big task.

"Stabbing to Purge Dissimulation" is a good reminder about why I never liked this band before. Pig squeals, monotonous, lifeless breakdowns, and a distinct lack of guitar prowess that was seen on previous songs. Bleck. I know that those who were disappointed in the album not being "heavy enough" will most likely adore this song.

"Gagged, Bound, Shelved, and Forgotten" isn't helping the stereotype of deathcore being seemingly anti-women, and it continues the bland direction of the previous track (plus bringing back those underwhelming power metal shrieks). I also couldn't help but notice the little "cyber riff" towards the beginning. It's fairly common amongst most modern "chug chug" bands like Emmure (if you can tolerate it, go listen to the beginning of "When Keeping it Real Goes Wrong" and you'll see what I mean). It just sounds like a tactic to get the kids in the pit to move, nothing more, nothing less.

I remember Guy from the Red Chord saying he found that deathcore had more in common with nu-metal than death metal, and the beginning of "Until the End" could prove him right. It isn't hard to imagine a kid with a Disturbed shirt and baggy pants getting down to this one. Don't get me wrong, I think it's a catchy song. But catchy doesn't necessarily equal good. It turns into typical territory towards the end though. At this point, I'm already yearning to turn this off and just put on Cursed-III again.

The opening riffs of "From So Far Away" actually surprisingly reminiscent of Baroness. It turns into another wank session almost immediately afterwards, though it retains some of the slow churning that it had at the beginning. It's another instrumental as well, and feels like half Malmsteen, half Mastodon.

"Misery's Introduction" is just that; an acoustic guitar/orchestral introduction to the final song on the album, "Songs for the Damned." I originally mistook this as a Soilwork cover, which would have ruled, seeing as how their knack for decent melody probably would have worked well. Alas...oh yeah the song. It's kind of underwhelming. The song more or less feels like something that should have been placed in the middle of the record, and GOD some of the lyrics are lame ("It's 2 minutes past the midnight hour and you hate my voice like sugar coated sour"). I will give props to the clean singing at the end though. I'm not big on the good cop/bad cop routine anymore, but it was rather well done.


Overall, I went into this album dreading it, and actually came out pretty surprised. This has more in common with modern melodic death metal than deathcore (minus a few tracks in the middle) and shows me that there might be some life left in the rotting carcass of this genre. Not all of these new ideas work out, but there are enough that do that warrant it from being forgettable. I think some of my friends big into European metal could find several things to like with this, as could the band's fans who are looking for them to grow. A strong 7/10.

Wish

Wish I knew safety.
Wish nothing phased me.
Wish I felt more than just feelings of unrest.
Wish the darkness didn't cloud me.
Wish I wasn't an emotional wreck.

Maladjusted, forever fucked

The two weeks or so have surprisingly been rather satisfactory. Actually makes up for the lackluster months I've had before it. Well, almost.


The only thing that really sucked was the whole post office ordeal turning out to be a scam. I really don't even want to go into further detail about it since I've explained far too many times now, and it really boils my blood to even think about it.

But on to the positives:

-Going to Opeth/High on Fire/Baroness in Raleigh was one hell of a great time. Despite being incredibly irritated by a large portion of that crowd, I had a blast and loved every performance that night. High on Fire should have played longer, Opeth took an HOUR to set up, and I wish Baroness had a better sound mix, but overall it was great. What really pleased me was that I was actually able to shoot the show and add these 3 (relatively) big bands to an already extensive portfolio.

-Trash Talk/Bracewar/Alpha & Omega/Torch Runner/Capital Ill/The Shotdowns the next week was even better. For all concertgoers like myself, you ever have that one show that you just absolutely NEED to happen? This was it. I had a lot of built up rage that I needed to let out, and this was the perfect place to do it. I suppose my only complaint was that I was nailed right in my manhood during A&O's set, but I quickly recovered, as I do after most blows below my waist. Trash Talk was on fire tonight, and A&O made a fan out of me for sure. Torch Runner is still the best unsigned band in NC right now. Get into them while you can. Soon they'll be big. What may have been even more memorable than the show itself was the experience afterwards. I had 3 people in tow with me (drives to Raleigh by yourself suuuuck), so per their suggestion, we went to a place called Cookout, which was reminiscent of Checkers and Sonic. Unfortunately, I decided to trust my GPS with directions, which did indeed take us to Cookout, albeit a GHETTO one. We were repeatedly harassed by a homeless gentleman, who most likely was on more drugs that night than what may have been humanly possible. After I gave him a couple or so bucks, he went up to the poor guy working the place, and spouted a lot of gibberish and anti-Mexican slurs at him. Fucked up.

-More extras work on One Tree Hill. Paycheck for that should be coming soon. Ironically, we filmed a scene inside of a church. Luckily lightning didn't come down and strike me. Sophia Bush looks a lot better in person than I thought, and there was another girl shooting scenes who might have had one of the smallest frames I've ever seen, but was one gorgeous creature. If anyone knows anything about the show and its regular cast of females (this one had brown hair), lemme know about this chick.

-Caught a screening of Zack and Miri Make a Porno. I enjoyed a good portion of it, but it seemed like a lot of the humor fell flat. I know everyone is saying that it looks like Kevin Smith is trying too hard to copy Judd Apatow with this one, but one forgets that if anything, Apatow's films are more similar to Smith's older works (occasional grossout humor, smart, realistic dialogue, an awkward serious act towards the end). Elizabeth Banks, Craig Robinson, and Justin Long were the highlights. I definitely can't watch Superman Returns again after seeing Brandon Routh's role in here. I'm sure another screening of it will cause it to grow on me, but for now, I'd say just catch it on video.

-I've landed a new job. Starting this Thursday, I'm working at Journey's in the mall. While it really pains me to go back to the hellhole that is Independence Mall, I'm just grateful to have landed a steady job right now. What is better is that when they open their kid's store, I'll transfer over to that, and most likely will be in the running for co-manager. Yay.

-Halloween downtown was a blast. Didn't really have to spend a lot of money on anything that day (costume-wise or drink-wise) but it still turned out to be quite fun. Dressing up as a bloody jesus surprisingly didn't get me killed. Jessica Gard and myself took quite a few pics which are up on my myspace page. Probably the best costume I saw all night was a tie between Mystique (from the comics) and the Greenman from It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia.

-I attended Today is the Day/Jucifer/Monkeyknifefight at the soapbox. To call it an interesting show would be an understatement. While every band did a swell job, little things here and there prevented it from being an amazing show. Weedeater canceling (due to their guitarist breaking his hand) drove away a majority of the crowd, Jucifer having BAD guitar problems after their first song, and Today is the Day's films making no sense whatsoever. That being said, it was still one hell of a good show though. Can't wait to see Jucifer again at the end of the month in Raleigh with Black Skies.

-After the aforementioned show ended, I received a text and call from Rob Sullivan, vocalist for Ruiner, saying them and FC5 (a melodic hardcore band from Japan) were almost in town and were going to get in by about 4am. The gang of 10 did indeed get here by then and crashed overnight. I barely got any sleep due to my weird reactions with hearing rain outside. After everyone got up the next morning, we made a trip to the mall so FC5 could shop. According to the band, everything in Japan is more expensive than over here, so they wanted to do some clothes shopping. We spent a little over an hour there, and then made a trip to Walmart, so the van could have its oil changed. I made an offer for those interested to go record shopping, since I knew Walmart loves to take their sweet time with looking at automobiles. So, with three of the dudes from Ruiner tagging along, we went to Gravity and did some vinyl shopping. Everyone bought at least 2-3 items (myself included) and then we went back to Walmart. It took over THREE FUCKING HOURS to get oil in a van changed. Ridiculous. Before this, FC5 mentioned that they wanted a good priced steak from around here. So, like every red-blooded American doofus would do, I suggested Outback Steakhouse. :P Wasn't super cheap, but I noticed nobody had any complaints afterwards. :D After we got done eating, they went to the show to load in. I went back home and grabbed my camera and changed (was super smelly from being out all day and from the rain). The show itself was AWESOME. Right up there with MLIW in VA and Trash Talk as far as being one of the best hardcore shows of the year. A Shot Below the Belt and Conquer Me gave what I thought were their best performances they've had so far. Ambush wasn't too bad, but I thought the breakdowns seemed forced. FC5 though, stole the god damn show. For a group of quiet guys from Japan who just wanted steak and vans shoes, they were superb and on fire on stage. I haven't been that impressed by a hardcore band I had very little knowledge on since I saw At Half-Mast last year. They threw in a Refused cover as well (Rather Be Dead), and I think I was one of the few who noticed what it was. Ruiner did an great job themselves like always, and it was funny being fucked with/jokingly called out by Rob for being a drunk moron. The brief speeches that were given were very appreciated too (such as saying that nobody is special these days, and that Rick Ta Life is a jerkoff. That makes 2 bands I've seen this year that have called him out hahaha). What made this show worth it though was the turnout. Nobody really had any real idea about how well, if at all, this show would draw, but it seemed to be a damn good turnout for a Monday. Kids circle pitting and dancing a LOT for about 85% of the night. Made my little bad self smile. After the show was done, I picked up a few pieces of merch, got a big "end of tour" group photo and said my parting words. All great guys, and two of the best bands in melodic hardcore right now.


Thats it for now it seems. I'm sure some other fun stuff will come about this week. I'm watching the house from this Saturday until the next, and have MC Chris at the soapbox to attend. I'll keep my fingers crossed on the job and hope that I don't go insane being back in the cesspool that is our mall.