It’s been eight years since Walls of Jericho released their last album, The American Dream, at the height of the metalcore movement and when female vocalists in extreme metal bands were still gathering steam. That release had more in common with the thrash revival of the time; the band was cleaner and more concise. Well, here we are eight years later, and singer Candace Kucsulain has been power lifting and MMA training, and lost her younger brother to brain cancer. Rightfully so, she’s gotten even more pissed off, and it bleeds through every single element of this fucking monstrous album.

Kucsulain and co (still the same line-up from 8 years ago), have reverted back to the metallic hardcore, and I’d say even more early Hatebreed-inspired sound of their earlier material (just listen to “Forever Militant” as tell me that isn’t “Puritan” inspired). Kucsulain is even fucking more venomous and spiteful than usual, and the material is just as beefed up as she is (I’m picturing her walking into a Napalm Records meeting with all the corset-wearing sopranos from the label’s roster, and them all peeing themselves). Ben Schigel has improved the production from the last record to make it as imposing as Kucsulain as well.

The music is pure, classic, burly hardcore rage, full of rousing power chords, runaway-train galloping riffs, gang chants, and breakdowns. Not the faux-modern deathcore bassdrop breakdowns though, but classic ’90s, emotional, fist-pounding, unifying, pit-inducing breakdowns. Just listen to the last stanza of pummeling title track,  “Forever Militant,” or “Fight The Good Fight,” and tell me that doesn’t make you want to rise up and overthrow everything. Pure barnstormers like “Cutbird” (dedicated to her brother), “Damage Done,” rousing “Anthem,” and the aptly titled, fucking devastating “Relentless”, are blood-pumping, riot-fueling anthems of pure rage. If kids nowadays were listening to this shit instead of Asking Alexandria, we’d have a problem on our hands and not ‘safe spaces.’ There’s even a slow chugger in “Reign Supreme,” which hits like a Mike Tyson body shot.

As on previous releases (“Saving Me,” “The Slaughter Begins,” “House of the Rising Sun”), Kucsulain gets to show her softer side with a cover of Concrete Blonde‘s “Probably Will.” The album ends with a couple of bonus tracks, including one of the band’s best songs, “Revival Never Goes Out of Style”, a re-recording of a killer, antithetic track from 2004’s All Hail the Dead. “Glory Hound” ends the album with a fucking exclamation point, and a release of pure throwback hardcore intensity which the scene has sorely needed.

[Visit the band's website]

---

Comments