Review Summary: One of the most technical Deathcore albums you'll get your hands on.
Today’s “Deathcore” scene finds itself filled to the brim with bands that build their music upon some very basic, “meat and potatoes” songwriting techniques. Endless breakdowns, “brutal” vocal deliveries, and blast beat drumming are some of these techniques. Pick up any album within the genre and you’re almost guaranteed to find these elements present in the music. Is this a bad thing? Not necessarily. Does it get tiring hearing the same elements used time and time again? In my opinion: yes.
That being said, some bands execute these techniques better than others. “Xenocide” is an album that takes all of these techniques and presents them so well that you forget the roots of this band and some of the cliché nature of this style of music. To me, this album leans more towards the “Technical Death Metal” side of the genre, reminiscent of the earlier music of bands like The Faceless. There are, however, some similarities to standard “Deathcore” bands like Whitechapel.
To sum up this album with one word: intense. Every component of the music that Aversions Crown delivers on this album is executed with such detail that the final package leaves me feeling ready to run forth into even the most violent of mosh pits. This album delivers everything from monstrous vocals to incredibly technical drumming to an insane speed with which each song carries itself forward. At times, I find the music to be a little “chug heavy,” but it is not overwhelming, unlike some albums within the “Deathcore” genre.
“Xenocide” begins with a short, 2-minute intro simply called “Void,” and it certainly acts as a musical void when compared to the onslaught of intensity that is issued forth from each song that follows. The entire album conforms to the musical themes that we have seen from Aversions Crown in the past. Concepts of space, extraterrestrial life forms, and scientific fantasies lead to sometimes cheesy yet acceptable lyrical passages.
Album standouts include the songs “Erebus,” “Stillborn Existence,” and “Cycles of Haruspex,” the last of which offers one of the most unique and hard-hitting intros I’ve heard from the genre. The band delivers a bridge section on “Erebus” that reminds me of something from Betraying the Martyrs, with some distant tremolo picking layered on top of a mechanically speedy drum passage. Throughout each song on the album, the band strikes a nice balance between raw power chord riffing and dissonant guitar leads. The layering of such aggressive, inhuman vocals on top of each verse ultimately creates the intense, powerful explosion of sound mentioned above.
Overall, “Xenocide” is a strong album that shows us that some of these borderline generic metal bands have the ability to compose fresh material built upon foundations that often saturate the genre. With this album, Aversions Crown have crafted some of the most technical and brutal sounds that I’ve heard from this kind of music in the past several years.
