Whitechapel – Whitechapel (CD)

It’s been a busy 24 months for Whitechapel. Third album
A New Era of Corruption blazed its way into the top Billboard 200,
they supported metal giants Job for a Cowboy across Europe and North America, they released the Recorrupted EP in 2011 and are now due to head out on the Mayhem Festival Tour with the likes of Slipknot and Slayer at the end of this month. They’ve somehow also found the time to record and release their fourth album, Whitechapel, out earlier this week. All extremely impressive, I’m sure you’ll agree.

What’s even MORE impressive, though, is how they’ve delivered such a knockout record with everything else that’s going on. And I mean this from the bottom of my heart: you all need this album in your personal library – it’s forty minutes of sheer mayhem. From the moment ‘Make It Bleed’ moves seamlessly from an extremely haunting piano intro into the savage guitars, drums and vocals, that make Whitechapel so recognisable, to the last notes of closing track ‘Possibilities of an Impossible Existence’, you will be glued to what can only be described as a master class in death metal. They say you shouldn’t fix what isn’t broken, and Whitechapel certainly continues where A New Era of Corruption left off – the attack on your ears is relentless, and vocalist Phil Bozeman sounds as aggressive and brutal as he has done on all of the previous releases. Previously released ‘I, Dementia’ is a crushing assault about the degenerative disease of the same name, whilst ‘The Night Remains’ is essentially three minutes of pure headbanging material. But perhaps the most striking track on the record is penultimate song ‘Devoid’, an instrumental piece that maintains the overall heaviness of the album despite the notable absence of Bozeman’s growls and anger, and paves the way perfectly for the aforementioned ‘Possibilities…’ to kick in and deliver another wave of superbly performed carnage, opening with the words. Watch where you point your fucking finger, it’s a matter of time before you’re all alone.

Put simply, this album will rip your face off, and you should definitely catch them on their UK tour this autumn with August Burns Red and The Devil Wears Prada. Whitechapel, take a bow and then take a few more, you have delivered a truly great album.  9/10

Track listing:

1) Make It Bleed
2) Hate Creation
3) (Cult)uralist
4) I, Dementia
5) Section 8
6) Faces
7) Dead Silence
8) The Night Remains
9) Devoid
10) Possibilities of an Impossible Existence

Links:

http://thediseased.com
http://www.facebook.com/whitechapelmetal
http://www.twitter.com/whitechapelband