So recently, as if to beat The Black Dahlia Murder to the punch before the release of Nocturnal, I’ve received a slew of surprisingly good ‘Swedecore’ bands; (Woe of Tyrants, Sons Of Azrael, From the Shallows, Bring Me The Horizon, etc) all plying a heavier handed, more death and black metal based form of At The Gates-core, and one of the better ones is Ohio’s At The Throne of Judgment, a band I’ve been following via myspace for quite a while.
Though hardly likely to make friends in pure death metal circles due to their looks, ATTOJ are actually a pretty solid act and with traditional ‘metal’ themes a la 3 Inches of Blood and Destroy Destroy Destroy (i.e. “The Mariner’s Cutlass”, “Tomb of The Thracians”, “Celestial Scourge”), their debut rather impressed me with its take on a genre that’s been pounded into dust.
Not quite deathcore (Whitechapel, Rose Funeral) and not quite full on melodic death metal/metalcore (August Burns Red, The Absence), ATTOJ lie somewhere in between with their deep vocals, blackened screams, solos (especially “Discarnate by Design”), thrash undercurrent, odd (ultra heavy) breakdown and galloping dual guitars and grasp on death metals moods. Other than intro “Cacophonous”, only mid album instrumental “Four Winds” breaks the album’s pretty high octane pace and punchy delivery of enjoyably familiar tracks like “Sentinel”, “The Mariner’s Cutlass”, “The Delphic Star” and monstrous “The Captive”.
Rise Records has found a nice, tight and competent little band here that should bridge the divide between traditional death metal and Hot Topic metal.
