Holy sh– No that wont work.
Jesus Chri– That wont work either.
God damn– Crap.
Well roger me with a Yorkshire terrier and call me Sally- man this is good.
Those Christians sure are bringing the pain this year. Not only is the debut from California six piece Earth From Above arguably the heaviest Christian metal records I’ve heard of late (including the new Impending Doom), it’s also one of the best deathcore records of the year so far.
So now that half of you have left, let’s discuss it in more depth shall we? Superficially, Earth From Above is not doing anything new in deathcore other than their fervent Christian themes, so expect all the rumbling growling/screaming, breakdown-ing heft and blast beats that all of their non Christian peers deliver. However, it is delivered with a tightness and ferocity belying of their faith. Not quite as pummeling as Oceano or Whitechapel, but close, and with more of a focus on time changes and blast beats than open note breakdowns, Earth From Above have more in common with With Blood Comes Cleansing in their furious attack. And also to their credit, the songs are well structured and memorable as opposed to reliance on breakdowns and little else.
Throw in a few very tight, All Shall Perish like moments of impressive slicing melody (“Vital Signs of Rude Awakening”, “An Abstract Struggle”, “Numbered Among the Transgressors”, “Death of Ignorance”), and you get a deathcore records that fits all the tenets of the genre but adds just enough to stand out and be above average. The two vocalists Josh Cortez and Kevin Walsh have the expected pained scream and gruff roar, and there’s no silly ‘reeee’ overkill, and when the band does deliver a breakdown, it’s as sturdy as anything in the genre as displayed by the likes of “Burials”, “Fatum”, “Death of Ignorance” and somber, epic closer “The Antidote”, which allows the production effort to devastate with a familiar if effective tone.
As usual from Strikefirst, the album comes in an environmentally friendly digipack and Striking artwork which shows to me Earth From Above is ready for the promotion up into Facedown records and be pushed as one of Christian metal’s most heavy and promising new acts and Facedown/Strikefirst is easily the premier Christian label right now. I’ll be interested to hear how new signees In the Midst of Lions stack up to this top notch effort.
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I’ve got this one ordered already. Thanks for the review Erik, now I’m giddy with anticipation. For being so disgusted with this new Deathcore “trend” I sure am buying a lot of these new discs. Of course there are some really good albums coming out by this new bunch.
on Apr 24th, 2009 at 12:52you know I think this newer generation is fixing the mistakes made by the first, just like how 90’s hardcore was a big improvement over 80’s hardcore.
on Apr 24th, 2009 at 14:43Man this CD is so good. And I agree about the current generation being a big step above the last, and the one before that. There’s so many deathcore bands now that it seems like the stakes have really been raised and the stand-out bands are, by necessity, really fuckin’ good.
on Apr 24th, 2009 at 22:47