Whitechapel “Hymns in Dissonance”
Hymns in Dissonance will be released March 7th on Metal Blade Records
American deathcore juggernauts Whitechapel have become one of the cornerstone acts of the deathcore scene. The band, along with Suicide Silence and Job For A Cowboy helped pushed the genre into popularity. With their chugging guitars and breakdowns, along with the guttural depths of the band’s frontman Phil Bozeman helped pushed the band into what some would call one of the biggest acts in the scene. The band began to experiment with their deathcore sound with the band’s sixth album, 2016’s Mark of The Blade. Showing Bozeman performing clean vocals for the first time in the band’s career. A move that was divisive among the fan base. The band even pushed their cleans even further with the band’s next album The Valley, which featured an all-clean vocal performance from Bozeman on the song “Hickory Creek”. Upon release, The Valley was a hit with critics and fans with the music and Bozeman’s cleans on the album. Experimentation went even further with their next album Kin. Blending elements of progressive rock and groove metal into the band’s trademark quintessential sound. Now, the band is about to release their ninth album Hymns in Dissonance, With the brutality and heaviness of the lead singles “A Visceral Retch” and the title track, is the band returning to the glory days of their early sound? Or is the progressive and experimentation still in the cards?
The album opens with the track “Prisoner 666”. Jangling, heavily downtuned guitars truly create an eerie ambient opening as lead guitars begin to rise from the depths of the production. Ben Savage, Zach Householder & Alex Wade help build tension and presense, then BAM with the heavy reverbed drums of Brandon Zackey add a war-like tribal drumming aesthetic. Then, Bozeman delivers the line “I bare the number 666” before an ungodly heavy opening breakdown chug before almost speed growling akin to Oli Peters of Archspire. Unrelenting, aggressive chugging and blasts by Zackey just continue to bombard the listener into the chorus. A chorus of melodic death metal shrieking, a la The Black Dahlia Murder, over a sheer barrage of guitars intertwined with chugs, leads and djent-style layering. Savage rips a nice, shred-heavy lead solo right after the halfway mark. Bozeman sounds unhinged, primal and unchained in his gutturals and high growls during the chorus. Ending with slow downs and wind ups while Bozeman just becomes possessed in his vocals. One hell of an opening for the band’s first album in four years.
The title track is up next, with that nasty bass gurgle from Gabe Crisp adding to the murky, downtuned goodness before Bozeman delivers deep, slam style vocals you’d get from acts like Abnormal Putridity. With his vocals becoming more unique with almost layered hardcore vocal cleans, into high-octane thrash drumming. An INSTANT pit-starter of a track that will definitely destroy live. I love the melodic death metal sounding guitars on the chorus, into one chug fest of a breakdown out of the chorus. I was headbanging along to every chug, especially with Bozeman’s hardcore-style growling that segues into melodic guitar harmonies and all over the kit drumming by Zackey. The man is a beast on the kit. And at the three-minute, forty second mark, you know that breakdown is gonna be epic with the slow, intense build. Especially with the music drops and Bozeman’s guttural hits like a nuke with the intensity of the chugging guitars, brutal double bass, and layered production add such heft and girth when the thud hits.
“Diabolic Slumber” has trippy, atmospheric wall of distortion and reverb in its opening moments. The drumming again just goes from 0-60, even as the guitars just hang in the ether of the mix. Bozeman’s rising gutturals into the chugs with studio effects gave me goosebumps. Another blitzkrieg of downtuned heaviness, slam-esque bounce and drum combos, before a constant beating over the head of blast beats and guttural depths. Capturing the sound of Whitechapel’s early records in the sheer onslaught on no-reprieve, “bring the heavy” delivery in its sound. The soaring guitar leads over the growls near the three-quarters mark was a nice touch and a deviation from the norm. Adding perplexity and uniqueness amongst the brees and chugging. I love Bozeman’s cries of “Let Them All Die” as the chugs and soaring, chorus-laden guitar leads wrap the track up.
Haunting and anxiety inducing guitars open “A Visceral Retch”. Creating a feeling of unease, unknown and otherworldly as the distortion rings throughout. Bombastic and menacing all at once, the song captures the trademark deathcore stank-face groove of the riff, before Bozeman’s snarling Black Dahlia Murder vocals kick in over the melo-death drums and guitar harmonies. The band just doesn’t give the listener anytime to breathe and just constantly keeps beating you to death over and over and over again with breakdown, slow headbanging, and ferocious guitars. Whitechapel are just going for the throat with this record, No moments of cleans, groove or progressive guitars on this album so far. This is meat and potatoes deathcore done perfectly with the intensity, aggression and pissed-off energy that encapsulates the genre. Brutal on top of brutal on top of brutality.
After the short interlude of tribal chanting, throat singing and cinematic drumming of “Ex Infernis” comes “Hate Cult Ritual”. With a distorted, propoganda-like chanting in its opening moment, the band continues to stay full-speed intensity. More thrash heavy in it’s speed and pacing, it continues the band dabbling in the melodic death metal genre on this album. Zackey is again flying all over the kit on the album. With powerful drum fills, to his feet flying at a hundred miles an hour, the guy doesn’t get a break from machine-gun like ferocity on the kit. Definitely a chug-heavy track throughout, and the breakdown with the opening mantra, accompanied by building tom hits just adds to a fever pitch as the guitars begin to rise from the darkness of the track. Summoning an unholy feeling as the song concludes.
“The Abysmal Gospel” has that nasty-sounding guitar tone as the drum thuds come in behind it. Instantly had me slow headbanging along with every cymbal strike from Zackey. The dueling Slayer-style guitar wails above the blasts and chugging was a nice change-up into a Napalm Death-like riff. Especially with the vocals juggling between deep, low ends to mid-range growls and the accompanied shouting vocals that would Barney from Napalm Death very happy. Guitars dueling over double bass truly shines near the close of the track. Like a breakdown but faster, as the song repeats the chorus as it sprints to the finish line.
A “Wooo” opens “Bedlam”, channeling that slamming hardcore vibe as the riff matches with the same slam death intensity. The vocal cadence of Bozeman over the riff, mimics a heavy follow the bouncy ball of death. With the guitars on the chorus almost acting like a blackened deathcore sound with some of the distortion. Before the bouncing, headbob inducing comes back with a punch to the throat. Especially with the gnarly sounding, djent bending strikes as the thundering drums come in like cannons. A hyrbid of a track musically. You get the slam/deathcore/hardcore mix of the riff, the death metal thump of the double bass and djent-esque guitars. Closing on a pretty short, but bass-heavy closing breakdown.
“Mammoth God” and the opening, siren-like wails soaked in reverb and delay, create a brooding, dark and melancholic atmosphere in the opening moments. The thudding drums and double bass, into the nice drum roll segues into a sonic onslaught of blasts, chorus-heavy leads, and Bozeman showing how deep and ominous he can be with his growls. His snarls are on-point to match the rising presence of the mix. The slow-down, building drums after the halfway mark, gives a fist-pump feel to the drum strikes as the riff leads into a pretty tasty guitar solo. Accompanied by blasting snares and snarling vocals as the song heads back into the main riff.
The album closes with the six-plus minute piece “Nothing is Coming For Any of Us”. And with so much brutality and power, how do you close this titan of an album out? By going faster and harder right out of the gate. With bass leads almost ringing through the main riff, the song continues the band’s journey into the deepest depths and doesn’t let go as it makes you follow the rabbit hole to its darkest depths. Bozeman just gets pure pissed-off and unholy in his vocals on this track. Throwing everything at the listener with high growls, shrieking goblin shrieks to fry screams that transition into beautiful, melodic leads that gave me goosebumps when that section hit. We hit the halfway mark and the reverb-lead harmonies come in before a barrage of blast beats and drum strikes come in behind it. Creating an uplifting attack of heaviness into another soaring guitar lead that transcends over the thundering drumming of Zackey. Almost giving the listener the feeling of ascending above the darkness and evil the record has delivered thus far. With the drums dropping out and the angelic guitar harmonies closing out the record in beautiful, distorted synchronicity.
Hymns in Dissonance is a record that just went for the throat and didn’t stop until you were dead and drained of every drop of blood in your body. Musically, this is a return to the records prior to Mark of The Blade. No clean vocals, no positivity, no experimentation or dabbling in “lighter” genres. This is unhinged and undeniable deathcore. Bozeman’s vocals are unmatched and truly showcases how deep is lows are, while also being complex in his vocal range juggling. Reminding me a lot of Travis Ryan of Cattle Decapitatation. So many songs on the album had such intense vocal dynamics and layering, creating that monstrosity of a presence that Bozeman became known for in the genre. For me, who was not a big fan of the “experimental” albums of Whitechapel, LOVED this record and might be up there for me as one of their best records. This was a beast of a record and could be one of the heaviest records of 2025 and will be a tough album to top, especially in the deathcore genre.
SCORE: 5 / 5
You can purchase the album on Metal Blade Records Bandcamp or you can stream it on the band’s Spotify.
