Review Summary: this album will stand the test of time as one of the few bands to trying some new in the "deathcore" scene and suceed at it.This is an amazing album and after reading this review hopefully you shall all agree with me.
To start off I will say as im writing this review to put me in the mood im actually listening to this album while typing this whole thing out so lets begin...
Winds Of Plague is a band that plays a mix of death metal, hardcore,and symphonic black metal. Scenesters and Genere Nazi's would probably like to describe them as something along the lines of "Symphonic Blackened Deathcore" but all descriptions of the bands music aside this album is put bluntly amazing. This album has it all to draw in a huge fan base WOP incorperates many facets of metal including solos',symphonic metal parts and catchy melodic metal licks over deep gutteral growling. Then on the other side of the spectrum they incorperate hardcore elements such as the widley hated group chants or "gang vocals" and heavy breakdowns and some what hardcore styled riffs and sections of there songs on the album.
Now the beginning of the album which i always hate when bands do this is of course and "instrumental" if you will ,the song "A Cold Day In Hell" consists of a foreboding keyboard part and then going into a heavy epic breakdown thats sound brings to mind drums of war being played as a large army marches to battle (think of something like movie 300). The intro track leads straight into WOP's calling card song "Anthems of Apocalypse" this song is probably there best representation of there sound as a band including all the aformentioned elements of there music. The best parts of this song are deffintley the amazingly sweet melodic solo at the beginning of the song that doesnt overly wank out with sweeps and uses them quite tastefully and the little drum keyboards break that follows a heavy breakdown then bust out into a fast riffing blasting fury before going into more sweet riffage.
Track 3 "The Impaler" is my least favorite song on the album it seems like filler to me and it over uses the egyptian themes that alot of bands have played to death already it does have an epic feel though which is good but i will just skip onto the next song.
Track 4"Decimate The Weak" is a F***ING PUNCH IN THE FACE of a song beginning with vocalist Johnny Plague screaming DECIMATE THE WEAK!!!. This song doesnt really let up and give anyone any room to breath easy its just sheer brutality throwing in heavy as hell breakdowns while the line "MY ASCENT FROM HELL" and crazy dive bombs on the whammy bar are randomly threw around. Then right in the middle of the song it jumps into the hardcore territory and has vocalist Johnny Plague shouting some hardcore style lyrics while group vocals chant in the back DECIMATE THE WEAK. Finally the end of the song is a breath of fresh air showing a return to form adding in some melodic guitar licks over some epic keayboards and the song ends leading into one of my favorite tracks on the album.
This song is called "Origins And Endings" and it wil f***ing crush you.The song slowly fades in with a keyboard part that almost sounds reminisent of something played in classical japanese music i believe the instrument is called the shamisen? but i could be mistaken.Anyways then the guitars bust in and the drums start to bang away and already you can feel the epicness of this song getting more and more intense as the song gets into full swing with the main riffs starting and the keyboards sweeping across the songscape like painting a vivid picture of a samuraif battling countless enemies.Then after playing some riffs and vocalist johnny shows of some better executed high screams. And then like out of nowhere the music halts a second and johnny shouts "WE DESTROY" and the most epic breakdown ive ever heard begins to the sound of a bell ringin out and then as the breakdown plays the most evil sounding dive bomb plays and then its over leaving you no room to breath the song moves into more riffage and the song continues on until it ends abruptley after one final heavy breakdown to leave you in a daze.
Track 6 'Angels Of Debauchery" is a well known WOP song this songs one of there more mixed bag songs having a lot of dffrent parts in it musically to appeal to everyone so its almost like everyone can take something diffrent away from it. My favorite part from this song is actually a really short little Opeth-esque guitar line that follows a breakdown it was really a complete change of pace for me and i would have never expected to hear it form this type of band.
Ahhh and now we come to the completley odd ball song on the album "Reloaded". This is WOP's "Hardcore" song its completley in your face balls to the wall heavy and shows no mercy and takes no prisoners begining the song with lines like "TONIGHT THE WORLD IS OURS!" and my personal favorite quote"WHAT THE *** IS UP MOTHER ***ERS THIS IS WINDS OF PLAGUE ON THAT 2008 ***!". Also this song lacks key elements of there music that you find on other songs including the lack of keyboards and meldoic guitar lines but then again they would deffinentley not fit into this song. this a good song even though its a diffrent style from what WOP normally plays its got alot of chanty parts and its a good song to get pumped up to and go out and raise hell or somehting of that nature.
Track 8 "Unbreakable" bleh another filler song to me its a solid song but it just doesnt appeal to me I can find no reason why I dislike it I guess I just do its all a matter of opinion and taste I guess , but anyways lets get onto the next song which is my favorite song on the album.
"One Body Too Many" the 9th track on "Decimate The Weak" and this reviewers favorite of the whole album this song is the first song i had ever heard from this band back when they had previously realeased this song on there first full length cd "A Cold Day In Hell". I was so happy to hear they re -recorded this song for the album it sounds so much better with the better quality producing than there last cd. "One Body Too Many " begins with a breakdown played with a sweep keyboard melody and it sounds just immense and then vocalist johnny growls lines like "burn me from your mind, this is a place i can no longer be anymore" the whole song i believe has to do with a woman ***ing up his head and leaving him and I dentify with this most cause ive just recently actually gone through this situation myself. excuse me for wearing my heart on my sleeve lyrical content aside the guitars are amazing playing really catchy melodic riffs then busting out into almost southern style hardcore riff swhile johnny plague screams "broken bones and a broken smile i cant take this anymore". Then finally the song ends with the most beautiful heart wrentching melodic sweep picking on guitar while the keyboards play a really epic beautiful melody until the guitars fade out only to leave the keyboards sad melody to play and fade out as well, this is the only song on the album that makes me witsh the outro never ended cause i just love that part so much.
the last track of the album "Legions" is another WOP Classic this time around they added a new keyboard intro to the song to add something fresh to the song. then the song begins with fast tremolo picked dual guitars while the drums blast beat away this song is deffinentley one of WOP"s most epic song. The lyrical content deals with being frustrated and feeling like god isnt there and such. The song ends with a really really heavy and fast breakdown. then the album has ended lol and my mp3 player went onto the next track in my music list and it just happened to be "Seventeen" by Winger hahahaha
This album leaves me with the impression i want to hear more form these guys because this album just wasent enough for me only having really 9 songs its a short album and i cant wait to hear more from WOP. this album i feel can be considered a classic in the "deathcore" genere simply because this band trys to be diffrent and branch out from your typical "Deathcore" fare and for that i give them a lot of credit for trying new things and ideas
recomended tracks:
1. anthems of apocalypse
2.Decimate The Weak
3.ORIGINS AND ENDINGS
4.ONE BODY TO MANY
