Review Summary: Earth From Above know how to chug.
Christian deathcore act
Earth From Above can be called many things. Anyone who says they are generic, or bland, or breakdown-infested, or unintelligent, probably are, in all honestly, completely correct. Little to nothing about their fast-paced, chug-centric deathcore is new or original in the slightest, having been done by legions of Myspace core acts before them. None of the members could be described as particularly amazing at their instruments, as the music isn't nearly as technical as that of other bands. All the focus here is on chug. Basically, they are the embodiment of everything that's wrong with deathcore.
But does that mean that you shouldn't listen to them?
Hell no. There are times when even the most musically aware bro needs some well-executed deathcore that doesn't take a huge amount of thought or focus to get into and enjoy, and Earth From Above suits this purpose perfectly. Their debut is pure adrenaline metal: the unrelenting droptuned chugs, the uncompromisingly devastating growls, and various other aspects come together to make this album
the album to invoke spasms of frenzied headbanging. The vocals are particularly impressive, with the vocalist alternating between a raspy black metal-like shriek and an extremely impressive cookie monster growl. The drums aren’t particularly amazing, but hold their own against the other members.
The band also shows much more restraint than other similar bands when it comes to breakdowns: instead of making tracks utterly full of them, they use them (relatively) sparingly. The disappointing part is that none of the breakdowns are particularly amazing, with almost all of them using the same open-note style throughout, displaying little to no variation. But it doesn’t detract from the record too much: this is still about as fun as deathcore can get. It’s not intelligent music in the slightest, but it does what it’s intended to do perfectly, and for that, if not for anything else, it succeeds.
Album Highlights
Salvaged
An Abstract Struggle
Numbered With the Transgressors
The Antidote
