Whitechapel - Our Endless War

Whitechapel - Our Endless War

Whitechapel has evolved their sound over the course of their 8 year, 5 album history. Starting off as a pure deathcore band with a fairly simple sound and lyrics that appealed to kids who wanted to seem edgy and shocking, they had been pushing towards a more deathmetal sound with each subsequent album. Abandoning cheap lyric gimmicks and writing truly dark verses dripping with metaphors about corruption and violence with a more thought out sound. Their last album, the self titled album seemed to try and wipe the slate clean, incorporating the so called 'djent' sound that has been popularized in the metal scene lately. Lyrically it came off a bit weak, verses were a lot more straight forward with some cringe worthy lines. Despite it's flaws it was still aggressive and dark with a versatile sound. It was still certainly a good album that just strayed a bit far for some fans.

Our Endless War is a different story. It manages to progress their sound, even more towards pure deathmetal and less core, while still dripping with the aggressive, raw, and violent sound and lyrics that made their first albums so great. The song Mono sounds like it could easily have been on Somatic Defilement while songs like Worship The Digital Age and Fall Of The Hypocrites would have right at home on This Is Exile or A New Era Of Corruption. There's also a lot more experimentation on this album. The first two songs in particular feature good old Whitechapel sound mix with some grooves that just meld so well.

The guitar work on this album is a step above what we've heard from the band thus far. More complicated riffs and grooves. Seems less constricted to a single sound. As always frontman Phil Bozeman has one of the best voices in the industry. For lack of a better word his vocal delivery is and always has been brutal. I mean that in the sense of it's almost an auditory assault in the best possible way. Managing to spit fire and change in a heart beat from highs to almost scary lows, it's ust impressive how he can even do it. If his voice was a person I wouldn't want to encounter it in a dark ally.

If this album falls flat anywhere it's in the lyrics. The same issue that plagued that last album continues although to a much lesser degree. What made their first 3 albums so memorable were the deep lyrics. Seemingly shallow on the outside, the meanings were buried deep in metaphor. It's what set them apart from so many other bands in the genre. Here most of the lyrics are just so straight forward, no story, no hidden meaning. On top of that some of the lyrics are just so cringe worthy and sound like they were written by a band in high school just starting out. For all the progress this band has made in it's sound, this is one area they seem to have devolved in. There are some shining moments however so their skill is still definitely there, it just seems to be held back.

If you're one of the fans who dropped off with their last album with not being aggressive enough or Whitechapel enough you should be giving this a chance, you'll be in love again. For metal heads who have written this band off as some deathcore, scene, weak try-hard, check this album out, they really have matured in their song writing, they haven't quite crossed that line between metal and core but they're right on it. If you're not really into deathmetal or core I can't quite recommend it. It's not going to shatter any boundaries. Personally I love it, it's become one of my favorite albums by them and I sincerely hope it's a sign of their future work.