Review Summary: Lord of The Rings-esque deathcore that fails to impress.
Winds of Plague, a band that traces its origin to the City Of Angels really says a lot about the band prior to hearing the mindless barrage of noise driven violence the band prides itself on. A band proclaiming such an origin desperate to show their hard edge. The Great Stone War is the band's second LP and follows a record which was received poorly by most. When coming up with an evaluation of the last album it is noted by the majority that the band has problems with its attitude towards making music that stands out from its fellow deathcore performers. This something they would probably dispute down to their influences lying in black metal supposedly, not that the listener is really struck by any black metal influences besides the use of a keyboard attempting to add a symphonic aspect to the music and a few instances of black metal style vocals.
Deathcore is a genre of music plagued by bands who infect their music with those same Suffocation breakdowns everyone heard years ago, the same boring song structures and an overemphasis on Swedish melodeath riffing which as already mentioned has been done a million times over. It is seen as a genre only really appreciated by genuine fans or for me, one who can’t quite get into the unrelenting speed of death metal. The rest of the metal listening world scoff at its oversaturation with clone bands such as Rose Funeral and Carnifex and with good reason.
Does the Great Stone War breathe life into a genre in undeniable decline? No.. The album opens with a laughable spoken narrative and some background music that would sound more belonging in Lord of The Rings. The album then properly opens with “Forged In Fire” which thankfully is a real song. However it certainly doesn’t give the listener a great deal of hope if they put themself through listening to “Decimate The Weak”, that very same generic deathcore sound is prevelant. A guest performance from James Stewart (Terror) isn’t enough to rescue this song from absolute mediocrity.
Positives are in short supply but they do exist however, “Soldiers of Doomsday” shines through as the strongest track with its enjoyable frantic pace from the off and appropriate use of breakdowns at the key points in the song. The classical style of their music which I suspect stretches to the keyboardist’s samples is used sparingly but enough to give the song a fresh element of difference from some of their deathcore counterparts. Other relatively strong tracks stretch to the title track.
Their use of this symphonic element music also brings me onto a point that grinded my gears with the last record, although their use is improved greatly it still comes across as a gimmick and rarely aids the record in making it anymore interesting than it would be in its absence. It almost seems randomly inserted at points such as early in “Battle Scars” where the keyboard seems to be hammered mindlessly in synchronicity with the wall of chug being thrashed out by the guitars and the bass. Too often does this feel the case.
Another obvious problem with the album, and the band overall is the bro’tastic lead vocalist who’s inhaled screams sound about as overproduced as Lady Gaga’s music videos. His hardcore roots are rarely seen (probably thankfully) and the excessive use swearing in the previous attempt is virtually non existent in “The Great Stone War”. He frequently experiments with guttural lows and shrieking highs but fails to impress with either vocal style.
Overall, many of the faults that underpinned “Decimate The Weak’s” failure have been ironed out except the most fundamental one, the overall generic instrumentation is a long way being from eradicated. Keyboardist Kristen Randall puts in a strong performance on the keys and her performance makes the listen all the more bareable but an overall shortage of memorable riffing highlights the guitars and bass’ sole purpose is to be brootal and create a wall of noise. The drummer’s performance is generally unspectacular with little inclusion of anything creative in terms of fills. He competently hammers away the onslaught following the patterns of the guitar and bass.
Recommended songs:
Soldiers of Doomsday
The Great Stone War
