Review Summary: Unmitigated discordance.
2014 has certainly been an interesting year for deathcore. It saw the maturation of respected bands such as
Whitechapel and
Carnifex, it showed how technicality can be utilized in various ways on
Job for a Cowboy’s and
Rings of Saturn’s new releases, and it also stressed how mundane and frustrating the subgenre can be through repeated offenders
As Blood Runs Black,
Suicide Silence, and
Emmure. However, the grimy discordant side of deathcore has been largely neglected, at least until Ukrainian moshers
Dysphoria put out their third studio release,
The Apogee. The album aptly displays the full scope of dissonance the genre can undergo – from speedy grind-esque passages to massive downtuned chug-fests – without sugarcoating a single note.
The Apogee is gripping from beginning to end; refrains are nowhere to be found. The only form of tranquility presents itself in the few moments separating each track. Dysphoria are utterly honest with themselves on
The Apogee; they wanted to create a mind-melting, heavy-as-fuck, groovy metalcore head trip, and in that regard,
The Apogee does not disappoint.
As previously noted, dissonance plays a huge part in
The Apogee. The riffs themselves are crunchy and jarring while atonal guitar nuances add the occasional much needed flair. One of the few moments on
The Apogee that even slightly resembles melody is found in closer ‘Dimensionless Appetite’, where the guitars harmonize for a few seconds atop the blasting drums before dropping into one of the album’s many crushing breakdowns. As per deathcore standards, breakdowns take up a large chunk of the album’s runtime. Thankfully though, Dysphoria use various striking guitar leads over the slow drawn-out chugs, making for tastefully layered, unique sounding grooves. Meanwhile, the vocals and production help enhance this cacophonous atmosphere with powerful hardcore screams and thick, rich guitar tones. The drumming is a beast of its own, alternating between relentless blast beats and offbeat rhythms like it’s nobodies business. Together, the band has no problem yielding the dense texture necessary to make a deathcore album work.
The problem therein lies in the album’s diversity, or lack thereof. Each track on
The Apogee is essentially a barrage of discordant riffs and insane drumming broken up by a plethora of breakdowns. There are only so many ways to make a breakdown interesting before clinging to previously used tactics. On early tracks, the atonal tapping above the gritty chugs come across as intense and fresh, but by track four you’re left wondering,
is this all they got? Dysphoria essentially have nothing to prove in the deathcore scene – they know how to be heavy, technical, and they certainly know how to keep listeners on their toes. All they need now is to expand their talents into new territory to create the landmark technical metal album they’re undoubtedly capable of.
