Whitechapel – Self Titled – Album Review

My name is Chris and I’m addicted to the new Whitechapel album.

It all started out innocently enough. I saw it there in my inbox: ‘New Promo Materials – Whitechapel”. I thought I could handle it. I’d tried a bit before, I’m not a massive Deathcore fan or any musical genre ending in core that doesn’t start with the word Hard; what’s the worst that could happen?

3 weeks have passed and this album has spent the entire time camped in ears, bullying out any new contenders for airplay, every track linking arms with its brothers like a picket line. It’s fair to say that this release more than stands up to repeat listens. ‘Make It Bleed’ kicks things off, the ‘things’ here being my ears. I did a genuine double take. I’d heard Whitechapel before and they had washed over me, but this, well, this was demanding my attention.

And this constant demand of my senses continued throughout the album. Saying that it took me an age to get through the album as I was constantly skipping back tracks for repeat listens. I felt like a kid at Christmas not knowing which present to play with first. These weird emotions also continued throughout: ‘Hate Creation’ gave me the feeling that I could one punch a grizzly bear; ‘(Cul)turialist’ saw me straddling atop mountains and during ‘The Night Remains’, I felt a compulsion to take over a small island. On repeat listens my confidence grew from islands to taking over larger continents, such is the power of this beast. The riffs are simply devastating and just when you think things couldn’t get any heavier, Whitechapel seem to utilise what I can only presume is a sonic cannon to produce some woofer-worrying bass drops that will have checking you still have the receipt for your speakers.

Whitechapel – s/t is simply epic. The usage of blistering double kick drums over a midtempo riff, the soaring solos and the relentless atmosphere throughout provides one of the most consistently powerful albums I’ve heard all year. Seriously, go buy it and join me at the next meeting.

Track Listing

1. Make it Bleed
2. Hate Creation
3. (Cult)uralist
4. I, Dementia
5. Section 8
6. Faces
7. Dead Silence
8. The Night Remains
9. Devoid
10. Possibilities of an Impossible Existence