Review Summary: The latest release from the only band brutal enough to slay Queen Cleopatra . . .
ASP. Get it? HA HA HA HA! ... I'm so sorry for that.
In sunny California, under the shade of towering palm trees, five musicians convened and vowed to synthesize only the most extreme of metal. Sadly, after employing every overly distorted tone and syncopated rhythm that they could come up with, the band came to the devastating realization that their music was hopelessly boring. Throwing their instruments to the ground in anguish, the brigade of blast beasts scratched their hands wondering just what was missing from their package. Several hours of deep cogitation slid slowly by before these makers of music made the breakthrough of the century. They had the spice, now all that was left to attain the sound of their dreams was the addition of sugar and everything else nice. Thus, All Shall Perish was born, and thus began the sad new brutalitarian world order: deathcore. All Shall Perish sure do stay true to their origins, slamming the listener with spicy breakdowns aggressive enough to knock him on his back, only to lend him a sugary sweet helping hand in the form of a passionate guitar solo or catchy lead moments later. The quintet tops it all off with all manners of nice things including impressive technical facility and a faint tinge of experimentation. In a subgenre that is ever becoming more bland and yet more popular, All Shall Perish take center stage as the most engaging and interesting deathcore act. Returning with their third full length release,
Awaken the Dreamers, All Shall Perish remind listeners just why they deserve such a title.
All Shall Perish’s 2006 release
The Price of Existence was a unique one indeed. While never forgetting their deathcore roots and constantly cranking out in-your-face breakdowns, the group garnished their sound with melody and technicality which earned the band a warm reception by critics and music enthusiasts alike. The same is very much true for the album’s follow-up except that the band has set even higher standards for their musicality. Hernan Hermida’s vocal range is one of the album’s fortes. He wields the mic with the guttural glory of a death metal vet while shattering nearby glass with his high-pitched pig squeals and screams. The absence of brees on this album will indubitably be met with chagrin by fans of the deathcore persuasion, but this new development will have other partisans of music that doesn’t suck jumping for joy. Heminda also occasionally presents the audience with some simple but well-done clean vocals throughout the album, making the music both ambitiously catchy and melodic. He even manages to loose some more goofy than effective falsetto vocals on “Black Gold Reign.” They’re pretty hilarious. The rhythm section is as strong as ever, considering bassist Mike Tiner’s lightning fast fingers and drummer Mike Kuykendall’s knack for artfully filling in space with demanding and rhythmically intricate fills that have his limbs flying from drum to cymbal and back again in a maelstrom of metallic fury. And then there are the guitars.
When he was crammed into the tour bus for the past couple years, lead guitarist Chris Storey wasn’t just twiddling his thumbs along the interstate. Instead, he was enacting his plot of shred apotheosis, and returned to the studio a veritable guitar hero. His fingers travel a million miles a minute allowing him to play leads both ripe with emotion and teaming with technical aptitude. Rhythm guitarist Ben Orum also steps up his game and manages to keep up with Storey, which makes for some impressive dual guitar runs (see “When Life Meant More”). Without a doubt, Storey stands out as the band’s MVP. Problem is, he knows it, and he’ll be damned if he’s going to let you forget it. By the end of the album (or the first track depending on how picky you are) his quick leads and impossibly speedy sweep patterns start to sound pretty interchangeable, and it seems that some riffs were written more to impress than anything else. His solos also come off as excessively complex and ostentatious and sometimes are completely devoid of any musical ideas of interest. His excessive technicality culminates in the instrumental “From So Far Away” where he enters Hyper Dweedle Weedle Wankbot 9000 mode combining the trickiest of techniques at speeds of which humans should not be capable. The track would actually be an enjoyable and impressive listen as well as a great opportunity for Storey to showcase his chops had he not been doing so incessantly for the last nine tracks. Were the solos fewer in number and of the caliber of the solo in “Black Gold Reign” where Storey blends virtuosity and feeling perfectly, the guitar performance would have turned out much better. In spite of Storey’s superfluous showboating, the music is still fresh and interesting.
On
Awaken the Dreamers All Shall Perish diversify their sound a wee bit more than on former efforts. It’s true, their overload of rancorous breakdowns and melody won’t disappoint any fan, but they adopt several other sounds in some tracks. For instance, “Bound, Gagged, Starved, and Forgotten”s main riff sounds reminiscent of melodic death metallers
The Absence. Also sprinkled throughout are clean interludes “The Ones We Left Behind” and “Misery’s Introduction,” both of which the band delivers in good style. These tranquil interludes may be the slightest bit awkward and will probably be over before you’ve realized they’ve begun, but they allow the listener to catch his breath before being bludgeoned with another onslaught of musical brutality. However, the sad truth is that these flourishes of tasteful music experimentation are too often stifled by the band’s never-ending use of stale breakdowns. Previous releases had ample breakdowns to be sure, but they were always cleverly adorned with something of interest, be it a melodic lead, an intricate bass tapping part, or nuanced drum fills. Such is not always the case on
Awaken the Dreamers. Some of the breakdowns are of the most generic order with none of the complementary splendor of past releases. These insipid sections are indeed the album’s very, very, very tragic flaw. This band’s potential is staggering, especially when considering songs like the title track, whose perfect union of intensity and passion is enough to make certain listeners soil themselves. In fact, those who have followed the recording process of this album and heard the title track first will more than likely be disappointed, as the album’s other tracks, with some exceptions, simply don’t compare. All Shall Perish, it seems, are shackled to the expectations of fans of the subgenre they themselves popularized, and are unable therefore to shine as brightly as they could, a condition so tragic that master wordsmith and divine facilitator of sorrows William Shakespeare would quoth, “Well damn, that’s some ***ed up ***.”
That being said, this album, in spite of few wholly amazing tracks, has some great moments, and it will provide any lover of extreme music with several good listens. This album may be a small step backward from its predecessor, but the band’s undeniable potential plants a seed of hope for the future. Now they need only sow it. In a super br00tal manner.
