Though still maligned as a genre, Deathcore had a a pretty solid year in 2017 with Aversion’s Crown, Thy Art is Murder, Oceano, Through the Eyes of the Dead, Fit For An Autopsy, Slaughter to Prevail, Conjonctive, Shadow of Intent, Boris the Blade and Reaping Asmodiea releasing solid efforts, and as the year closed out, I got this little self released EP from South Jersey’s Cranley Gardens.

I half expected these guys to be from the UK seeing as the band name and a song name is based on Britain’s  3rd most notorious serial killer, Dennis Nilsen, who killed least 12 men between 1978 and 1983 and had me and my family as well as the whole country glued to the news. An interesting choice considering the US’s much more virile serial killer history.

After intro “Muswell Hill”, details Nilsen’s activities, you  then get 6 more tracks of solid American deathcore. It’s got all the genre requisites to go along with the interesting concept; dual growled/screamed vocals (including a few guests I’m not super familiar with), down tuned guitars, pummeling breakdowns and Black Dahlia Murder ish dual melodies. But it all comes together competently and with energy, as tracks like “History of a Drowning Boy”, “Rapture” and closer “The Challenger”  check all the deathcore boxes with aplomb. The production is big and beefy and the breakdowns carry plenty of weight, as you’d want and expect from the genre. They avoid some of the genre pitfalls too like acoustic bits or clean vocals. Though the moody “Carry the Earth” comes close. They Just bring the mosh.

In all, a pretty solid EP  of American deathcore that stands toe to toe with their peers mentioned in the opening paragraph and based on the linear notes and thanks list, these guys poured their heart and soul into this EP and it shows.

[Visit the band's website]

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