Review Summary: Above-average deathcore just barely manages to be above-average music
Of late, simply the dreaded d-word brings about snickers and groans in the metal community. The vast majority of the genre is bogged down by carbon-copy bands bringing little to no innovation to an already watered-down genre that could have had so much potential. I'm not here to tell you that
Out of Yesteryear's new and only LP
The Blackness is going to change your mind on the genre, because in all likelihood it won't. However, the album is definitely better than most of the generic bull*** you'll hear on the 32-gigabyte iPod Touch of some rich angsty white kid, mostly because it attempts to separate itself from the deathcore scene and somewhat succeeds in that feat.
The Blackness is definitely more "death" than "-core", which in my eyes, and surely most metalheads too, will be a good thing. The album also incorporates keyboards and symphonic elements, and more often than not it works fairly well (aside from the incredibly cheesy horn section in "Running in Circles", among others). Breakdowns are used more sparsely than in most bands on the scene, and they are usually complimented by a cool guitar lead or orchestral backdrop. The guitarists and drummer are obviously technically talented, but who isn't these days? The guitar solos, like in "Mercy is Definitely Not My Name" (what a title...) are pretty mediocre, however, which is a shame because some good solos would have definitely benefited
The Blackness.
Riffwise, it's a mix of brutal death riffs, melodic leads, and the standard chugs and juns you've come to know and...uh... well, know. The riffs and melodies range from decent to pretty awesome; see the title track. Songs do little to stand out from one another on their own, but if you're simply looking for a heavy, somewhat different coar album, it gets the job done. The drums are pretty generic, almost always following along with the guitars and tearing it up when it's blastbeat time. Take a wild guess at how the bass player gets worked into
The Blackness...he doesn't. As for the vocalist, he demonstrates a decent range but his style is basically the same as that dude from
Veil of Maya or that other dude from that other deathcore band. Luckily the incredibly generic double-tracking high and low screams isn't used too often.
It's deathcore. It has symphonic elements. It has cool guitar parts and at the very least, it attempts to do something different. Check out
The Blackness if you're looking for a fun, heavy listen, and nothing more.
Out of Yesteryear sure has some potential, though, if they learn how to make the symphonics work better and add some dynamics and variation to their sound.
