The subgenre known as deathcore has become quite crowded over the years with new bands by the boatload popping up all over the globe. Having said that, Australia’s own Aversions Crown are one of the middle-wave to sprout after the likes of Suicide Silence and Whitechapel laid the foundation in the mid-to-late 2000s. AC’s latest album, Xenocide (Nuclear Blast), comes out on Inauguration Day in the US, so it is befitting to have an album with such a title be released on such an occasion.

With a deathcore album, for the most part, I am going to have pretty low expectations since there is not too much breathing room for the artists to stand out from one another. Having said that, Aversions Crown have put together a solid set of tracks. The first that caught my attention is ‘Hybridization’. Chugging rhythms and memorable guitar leads build up to two bone-crushing breakdowns. Then you have ‘Ophiophagy’, which starts off like a typical djent song with strange syncopation, then there is a nice vocal break with light leads towards the end of the track that spills into an ending breakdown that should get you moving.

‘Cynical Entity’ is certainly one of the better tracks, pulling off memorable guitar riffs and leads but also sharing the spotlight with a breakdown which does not become the highlight of the song. It often feels like every other deathcore album is just a collection of breakdowns that bands wrote songs over so having a track like this was enlightening.

Overall, Xenocide is a solid deathcore album from a fairly good band. While this album will not be a contender for any year-end lists for 2017, being able to listen to a full album in this style from front to back without tiring is a good sign.

5.5/10

TIM LEDIN