Review Summary: Smile?
For those who are
still waving the um…deathcore flag, there’s something to be said for the type of bands that just kept on carrying on. Chelsea Grin, more often known for their early 2010’s exports are exactly one of those bands sporting the modern face of deathcore look heading into the decade after their inception. For
Suffer In Heaven, whose counterpart dropped last year in the form of
Suffer In Hell (some original titles going on here), Chelsea Grin are the stalwarts of uninspiring, albeit solid deathcore. No really. It’s hard to explain just why albums like
Suffer In Heaven are just “okay” without dumping a fire of pejoratives here, there and everywhere. You see, the band’s 2023 effort isn’t offensive, but it does fit the
aesthetic. Of course, there’s big bold meaty riffs, screams that roar from one side of the mix to the other. Defining Chelsea Grin’s latest export isn’t an exploit in individuality, but a lesson in how to deal with inoffensive offensiveness. Even the opener, “Leave with Us” manages to summarise every derivative trope deathcore has to offer. Not descriptive enough? Perhaps that’s the point. Even the featurette, “Orc March (feat. Filth)” fails to step off the rails long enough to make an impact. The tempo stomps forwards, awash with chugged riffs and gnarled screams. It’s business as usual…for just under thirty minutes. The rest of Chelsea Grin’s newest flies by without too much notice. “Yhorm the Giant” might sound massive on an individual scale, but I’m hesitant to offer larger praise as the rest of the
Suffer In Heaven picture comes into focus. There’s a dystopian, post-apocalyptic vibe that underlies the belly of just about everything here, it just doesn’t shift, grow, develop or entertain past the base levels of the niche genre it represents.
Suffer In Heaven is on the ‘good’ side of ‘bad’, but all in all, it’s at least “The Path to Suffering”.
