Review Summary: A shocking album on all accounts. Shocking with its utter lack of originality, but what's even more shocking is that WTC was even capable of creating this album.
Alas, all good things must come to an end. And while nobody will ever claim that listening to WTC's Demo was ever a good thing, the sheer amount of laughs that thing produced
almost justified the band's existence. So ridiculed was the band, that it actually came to be nicknamed the "Wheat Metal band", thanks to an unflattering Youtube video which mocked the Demos' incomprehensible lyrics. Really, the band was so critically dismissed due to its over-use of breakdowns, unimaginative riffs and offensively off-time drumming, that it comes as a surprise that this release
isn't another tutorial on how NOT to make extreme metal.
That's right folks, WTC has grown-up (relatively speaking) and now they're endeavoring to get some metal cred. Gone are most traces of deathcore, replaced by what can correctly be termed "Slamming Death Metal". Does this mean that the band pulled off a Job for a Cowboy and managed to release a good, legitimate extreme metal album? Yes and no. Remember, we're still talking about WTC here.
This means that although there isn't much that's offensively bad about this album, we're still talking about one of the most unimaginative, generic metal bands of all time. Yes, they're now playing in a semi-respectable genre, and yes, they are competent at it, but no, they fail to add anything new or exciting to the mix. In fact, the most intriguing thing about the release isn't a riff, a blast beat or a good slam part, but the absolute surprise that WTC was even capable of producing these sounds. "Reign Supreme" is particularly groovy, and there's even a Thrash influenced bit in "Terminate With Extreme Prejudice", but even this doesn't salvage the album from being extremely bland; even in its best moments, Beyond Cops, Beyond God sounds like a bad emulation of your favorite Slam Metal bands. Nothing particularly note-worthy is recorded, and every single song fails to reach the intensity and brutality of much better metal outfits.
But enough about the "good" aspects of this album. Although Mr. Campman has minimized his use of those god-awful pig squeals, the fact remains that they shouldn't be used in the first place. Just when you're starting to appreciate the massive change that WTC has undergone in a track like Reign Supreme, his pig squeals come in and make you laugh, or, if you REALLY absolutely hate them, smash your head against a wall (don't say I didn't warn you!). He also has the tendency to use inhales, which, if you have even a passing knowledge of Extreme Metal vocals, IS NOT a good thing. Even at his best, Campman sounds like an amateurish "-core" vocalist. Worse than the pig squeals, however, are the lyrics, which are the one aspect of the band that didn't undergo much improvement. And while I enjoy that the album has more themes than raping women (which previously made the band seem like a bunch of sex deprived wimps), it's unfortunately been replaced by nonsensical Satanic posturing and gore (as indicated by the tacky cover art). For example, the opening track says something along the lines of "Realize that there is no God", but later in the same song they say "I defy God/reloading my guns/In the name of Satan". Wait, I thought you said there wasn't a God to defy...Elsewhere, the lyrics are even more egregious, even threatening an "Internet fagit" (I kid you not).
Ultimately, nothing in this album is even remotely original or executed particularly well. It's a below-average Slam Death Metal album bogged down by horrendous vocals, non-existent bass and laughable lyrics. True, in all fairness the band does deserve some credit for trying to fix up their act, but when it comes right down to it, the band isn't even worth listening to for a laugh. They've traded in their only "redeeming" value for one of the blandest, most boring metal releases of all time. Give them credit for that as you see fit.
