A horse that has been consistently flagged is how common place the amount of just out of high school/college males bulging with excess testosterone can continue making incomprehensible band logos, oddball names, flashy merch and their by now standardized racket branded as ‘Deathcore,’ i.e. the amalgamation of death metal and metalcore (although sceptics and those with anal retentive disorder will pass these bands off as poor man’s slam death metal which has been going since the early 90s but let’s try to refrain from assuming such an easy way out and look exactly at what these bands are plying).

Well I hate to break it but the likes of Whitechapel, Impending Doom, Misericordiam, genre leaders Despised Icon and now Suicide Silence have proven this year that this sound has plenty of shelf life still.

Suicide Silence in particular haven taken impressive steps on this full length to contest that they are not a gimmicky brOOtal myspace band for your profile page. They have proved this by doing the groundwork via their demo and mini cd and solidified their areas and crafted an excellent debut long player.

The Cleansing, valiantly conforms to all of the Deathcore trimmings (if you don’t know yet – breakdowns, blasts, nasty death metal riffs, dual guttural and sneering vocals) thus resulting in an incendiary yet comfortable breeze block of brutality. Clearly the continuous touring and time in the studio (together with a handsome budget supplied by Century Media as this sounds mint) has seen them hone their grasp of their metal influences which take precedence here. That’s not to say that the core influences have been totally eradicated but they are more confined in comparison to earlier material.

Compositions such as ‘The Disease,’ present tighter drumming, darker riffs and a far more focused delivery by the band. The blast beats in this piece are particularly impressive, blazing feverently before relaxing into defter patterns to complement the other instruments. Now whilst the blasts are strong don’t be expecting no Nick Barker or Hellhammer type velocity, not yet anyway, boy needs time. The overall structure of the song also shows the band’s growth, it twists and turns, piling riffs on top of each other before lurching to its juddering (and of course expected) breakdown at the climax. Another strong standout is ‘In A Photograph,’ which again duly executes the stylistic trimmings with deft aplomb but contains some of the album’s most shuddering breakdowns.

Of course the dilemma Suicide Silence now faces is where to go from here. Being their big debut one could have anticipated a compromise, allowing a few fluffier and poppy elements to creep in but they have stoically refuted from doing so. However seeing as I cannot see Deathcore lasting out too much longer in its current phase it will be intriguing to see whether the incorporation of such elements will be to tempting to refute.

[Visit the band's website]

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