Hymns in Dissonance - Whitechapel
Whitechapel’s ninth album is finally upon us, and it is a barrage of crunchy guitars, pummeling drums, and feral screams that melt your face over the course of 43 minutes. Hymns in Dissonance sees the band return to their roots after growing as songwriters, trying their hand at some melody with their last two albums (both critically and commercially successful), and looking to silence any overly critical fans that felt the band was “going soft” or selling out. I wasn’t necessarily one of those fans who felt negative during that time (I adore The Valley), but I did feel like the band took the wrong lessons from The Valley and applied them to Kin. When it comes to melody in a band like Whitechapel, less is more, which was not the case with Kin. On Hymns in Dissonance though, the songs are brutal to the point they rattle your skull. Phil refrains from singing here and instead the band delivers an album that reminds me of the “old days” of This is Exile and The Somatic Defilement. This album feels like the band returning to reclaim the Deathcore throne after venturing into different Metal genre blends, reminding us all that Whitechapel is still one of the best Deathcore bands to ever do it.
Whitechapel decided to write another concept album after doing that with their previous two records, but this one doesn’t chronicle the childhood and adolescence of frontman Phil Bozeman. Hymns in Dissonance focuses on the story of a demonic cult and its leader trying to ascend to a different dimension to gain power. It’s a little cliché for a Metal band to write about something like this, but I still had a fun time with it since I’m such a sucker for concept albums (Green Day’s American Idiot and 21st Century Breakdown, the previous two Whitechapel albums, and Within The Ruins’ Phenomena to name a few of my favorites). A new aspect for the band this time around is that their guitarist Zach Householder produced the record, making it their first self-produced album. The production quality is clean and clear, which is impressive when the guitars are 8-string monsters tuned low (sometimes Drop F in certain breakdown sections). Typically, this combination can lead to a muddy Metal mess, but that’s not the case here.
The writing on Hymns in Dissonance is tight and mature. The band doesn’t just play the album “straight” - focusing only on blast beats and breakdowns. There are time signature shifts, an eerie interlude with more tribal drum patterns introduced on the first song, and plenty of varied vocal styles from Phil that help keep things fresh. The songs on the album lean on the longer side, with several songs over 4 minutes long, a few over 5 minutes, and the final song clocking in over 6 minutes, giving the band time to play within the songs to craft a concept album that feels epic in scale. Several spots on the record have this awesome tribal pattern on the floor toms that feed into the cult story and are a highlight for me. I also felt like Phil’s vocals are some of the best in the band’s history, showcasing his evolution as a Metal vocalist.
The whole album should be listened to from front to back, so my song picks for this album don’t necessarily reflect my favorites, but just songs that contained a quality about them that felt necessary to call out. Every song on the album is worth your undivided attention. The album starts with “Prisoner 666”, which serves as an incredible introduction to the record, building with the tribal drum pattern I’ve been mentioning so far, until Phil launches into a vocal assault. It reminds me of a song we could have seen on the band’s self-titled record in 2012, just it’s now older and more evolved. “The Abysmal Gospel” feels like a blend of groovy Death Metal/Black Metal mixed with Deathcore, leaning Hardcore in several verses where the drum and guitar patterns are all-too-familiar with fans of the genre. Finally, the album comes to a close with “Nothing Is Coming for Any of Us”. It’s a colossal-sized song for the band that has it all; thunderous drumming, nasty Phil vocals, an Earth-shattering breakdown, tempo changes, and sweeping guitar melodies to close the song and album out. It’s arguably the most “mature” a Whitechapel song has sounded and feels like a new dawn for the band as the last notes of the guitar fade into the ether.