Turns out those dudes in Whitechapel are going to be alright. About a decade removed from the great Deathcore rush, this Knoxville unit is still putting up strong numbers and successfully exploring beyond the confines of the genre. And if you enjoyed the genre line blurring on 2019s The Valley, well it turns out Kin (Metal Blade) is willing to venture further out into the woods.
Within the Deathcore genre Whitechapel are one of the true originators of the sound and in 2016 they released an album called Mark Of The Blade (Metal Blade). To say it was a divisive album would be an understatement, in a story which has been told many times before the band chose to broaden their creative horizons with a cleaner production and clean vocals. In some corners new album The Valley (also Metal Blade) is being touted as a turning point. Continue reading
Whitechapel are a perfect modern example of the varying levels of success that one can achieve on different sides of the Atlantic. Debuting at the time when deathcore was either the next big thing or a blight, depending on who you asked, This Is Exile (Metal Blade) garnered some success in the UK and Europe, before their upward curve seemed to plateau. In the USA, however, they have a higher profile, raising themselves above cult status, with a fanatic fan base they affectionately call their “brotherhood”, from which The Brotherhood Of The Blade (Metal Blade) adopts its name.
The live performance of this package (a documentary is also available) comes from their Knoxville, Tennessee performance on the Our Endless War (Metal Blade) tour and sees them on very sold and fine fettle. Greeted with “Whitechapel” chants at the start, which shows the swell of anticipation, before the latest albums introducing brace of ‘Rise’ into ‘Our Endless War; erupts. All throughout, the performance is near studio perfect – and the band do not miss a beat or note despite technical flurries and breakdowns, whilst frontman Phil Bozeman sounds as furious as on record, showing a varied, if all too familiar range, of growls and barks.
While this live recording shows Whitechapel as a precise, strong and reliable live band, it also lacks any real magic, falling short of the truly great live albums we all know and love, and with the performance being studio quality, it’s hard to see how anyone beyond hardcore fans will find much of value that they won’t get from the studio albums.
What is abundantly clear, however, is how underrated this band is on the British side of the pond. With songs like ‘Possession’ and ‘Mono’ proving huge, ferocious but still accessible and memorable, it is clear that fans of the likes of Heart Of A Coward and even Parkway Drive would find much to love here. As Brotherhood… shows, Whitechapel are a vastly underrated and very reliable act with plenty in their arsenal to back them up. As a package however this will only prove truly valuable to those already in said cult of the blade.
6.0/10
CHRIS TIPPELL