Hailing from North Vancouver, Canada Angelmaker return with their third official release and this is their second full-length album-follow-up to their powerful 2015 Dissentient album. Once again independently released by the band this self-titled album sees the 6-piece deathcore act steamroll their deathcore competition.  14 songs in 49 minutes the band brings the quality and quantity, especially with a production that is sure to topple buildings and knock the Canadian moose on their asses.

I really had not heard Angelmaker’s music until I was asked by Internal Bleeding to once again front IB and came back last year and do the Bloodletting tour and Angelmaker were one of the bands on the tour.  After the first show, we all quickly bonded and I picked up several shirts and their cd’s from singer Mike Greenwood.  I have always admitted, and although I consider the members of Angelmaker my brothers, opening an album with an intro-all people who have read my reviews over the years, know this is something I just am not a fan of.  However, I have followed deathcore, for quite some time now, and a lot of deathcore bands have opened their albums with intros.  But still I’m like, let’s just cut to the chase and get to the song, dammit.   Luckily “Dolor” is only 30 seconds.  Any longer and I may have had to launch drummer, Jesse Price into outer space.  “I Long For Rest” comes in and the ferocious double bass of Jesse’s drums comes in with Matt Perrin’s and Colton Bennett’s guitar heaviness has a razor sharp heaviness that has already lopped off heads across the world.  The dual vocals of Mike Greenwood’s higher shrieks and Casey Tyson-Pearce’s gutturals are all in top form.  If you snooze for a second you will be quickly awakened with Cole Rideout’s undercurrent of bass heaviness which propels the rhythm section quite a bit.  Nice gang shouting vocals and the melodic nature of Angelmaker returns.  Some ethereal and atmospheric moments towards the end, really add to the song.

“Bloodthirster” is a nicely named tune with some brutal deathcore beatdowns.   Crack open some of that Emmure and Mesuggah inspired djent and you will be mauling people.  One of the things I picked up from their live performance, from touring together, but also in their releases is they do have some signature styled parts and one of them I really dig is when they have the isolated vocals/gang shouting and then BOOM right into a beatdown slam moment.  On this song, the Holy Shit moment is at the 1.39 part with the gang vocals, then right into the slam and guttural moment.  Seriously-this stop n start slam part I did some wind-milling and picking up change moves and damn near collapsed the neighborhood. It’s catchy and ass-kicking.  Then some melodic guitar soloing.  The end of the song is heavy and massive.  And you cannot get anything past this ‘younger’ guy, but if you would have told me one of the heaviest albums for 2019 was to have a Monty Python sound clip on the album I would have said, Stop bothering me, I’m taking a triple flusher.  But sure enough on “Origin”, the opening part has a brief clip from Monty Python and the Holy Grail-oh yes, the most frightening and terrifying of them all….The Knights Who Say Nee!  I damn near fell out when I heard the song opening.  Awesome!  The song features massive double bass drums, killer vocals and some nice blasting moments.

The rest of Angelmaker features more melodic passages, some real nice guitar solos and a lot of beat down slam moments that will have pits moving.  A month before the Bloodletting tour last year, Mike Greenwood’s brother, Sean, took his own life.  The band still plowed forward and Mike and I spoke a lot during the tour-lots of heart to heart moments that I will always cherish.  Much of the lyrical aspect of this album seems like a cathartic release for Mike.  Read the lyrics to find out.  The album is dedicated to Sean and RIP goes out to him.  [I digress for a moment-but if you’re suffering from some sort of mental illness/physical malady-please get help, talk to someone, do something so that you again get on the path of healthiness-I mean that sincerely].

The booklet layout is exceptional and again the pictures inside the booklet all tie in to the lyrics and Angelmaker should be proud of this album.  Their best produced album and with their brutality, mixed in with their melodic nature and signature style are actually furthering this genre and for that, well, that’s big.  I encourage you all to buy this self-titled album and when Angelmaker comes around on a tour-go to the damn show.  Buy or Die!

[Visit the band's website]

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