Another “super group” of sorts, World Under Blood is the product of CKY guitarist Deron Miller and skins beating journeyman Tim Yeung (Divine Heresy, Morbid Angel, ex- Decrepit Birth, ex- Agiel, etc), . Along for the ride is ex-Decrepit Birth four stringer Risha Eryavec and guitarist Luke Jaeger, who has done time in All Shall Perish and Sleep Terror. It feels, to me anyway, like a rock guy looking to play around with his metal influences, and I gotta say, it’s surprisingly good, even if they bring absolutely nothing new to the table.
The chosen style is melodic death metal, mostly reminiscent of Slaughter of the Soul era At the Gates, but with a modern sheen that more times than not, reminds of Darkest Hour (who themselves often remind of ATG, go figure). They play fast. Tactical is not weak nor watered down. The pace is generally brisk, they slow it down for the occasional chorus (“Under the Autumn Low”) or mid song break (“Dead and Still in Pain”), though more often than not, they’ll just steamroll you with fleet fingered riffs, ripping solos and blasting drums (“Into the Arms of Cruelty”,“Purgatory Dormatory”, “I Can’t Stand His Name”).
The lead off track, “A God Among the Waste” still puzzles me – it stands out from the rest of the pack and is a bit misleading with it’s heavy use of clean vocals (something which is very sparsely used through the rest of the album) – it’s a good tune that grows on you more over time with an infectious chorus, but it does have a completely different vibe from the rest of the album, and it’s place as album opener seems odd. It sets you up to believe you’re in for another run of the mill good cop/bad cop vocal themed melodic death/metal core album which is hardly the case.
Album closer “Revere’s Tears” is also a bit misleading, as it opens with acoustic guitar, and you think “here it is, the token super mellow song), but then it rips into heavy with a scream and distorted guitars. Overall though, the song is brought back a couple notches on the speedometer, carrying with it a slightly epic sort of feel, and the albums best solo by far, it’s a nice reprieve to the near endless bludgeoning of the previous six tracks and a strong closer.
There are no real gripes with the album other than the odd, misleading opener. The production is strong and clear, and the songs are well written. Fans of melodic death metal should be pleased.
This album slays! Truly. I think it is one of the more engaging melo-death albums in ages….glorious.
on Aug 12th, 2011 at 22:22Nothing great here, but Tim Yeung could play on the new Britney Spears album and I would probably like it. Good review.
on Aug 13th, 2011 at 11:57Yea man I really like this album. AGreed about “God Among the Waste” as being a weird album opener. I think the At the Gates comparison is totally off the mark though… it seems to me like people forget what “Slaughter of the Soul” actually sounded like and just compare things to it by default. Anyway a good review otherwise, my favorite songs are “I Can’t Stand His Name” (killer riff mayne) and “Pyro-Compulsive” which is action packed in all kinds of cool ways. I had no idea that this featured a guy from CKY. Now that is weird.
on Aug 14th, 2011 at 18:54Hey, thanks krustster. lol, I really do think it sounds quite similar to SotS, I was listening to it not that long ago. Not a carbon copy, but heavily reminiscent.
on Aug 15th, 2011 at 23:45Listening to it again now I can actually hear the CKY-like sound to some of the guitar riffs and that really blows my mind.
on Aug 16th, 2011 at 17:52James Murphy.
on Aug 30th, 2011 at 08:05