Review Summary: Godless deathcore.
Deathcore has received its fair share of disparagement, as well it should. Most of that due to the lack of experimentation and growth found in the genre. Every genre needs standout groups pushing and prodding its boundaries or, better yet, completely caving them in. There are some groups that do that very thing, yet at the same time there is value to be found in just taking the sound’s primary elements and refining them. A Night In Texas gravitates more towards the latter. Their debut full length
The God Delusion is the epitome of modern deathcore. Every second of it is a freight train of blistering tempos, crushing grooves, and mind numbingly vicious vocals…..precisely what you need in a deathcore record.
The greatest strength
The God Delusion has going for it is its concise runtime. A Night In Texas cleverly cuts off the album at the half hour mark and avoids the exhaustion factor that comes with this brand of extreme music. The band doesn’t fool around with slowed down prog sessions or acoustic breaks, instead preferring their tech riffs and chugging breakdowns. Sure it’s fairly one note, but in that simplicity lies effectiveness. It’s a pissed off record for pissed off people and doesn’t shoot for anything greater. The faster moments call to mind fellow technical deathcore outfit Beneath The Massacre; but where that band is weighted down by their constant blasting, A Night In Texas balances the tech nicely with groove. The breakdowns seem to appear at just the right moment to relieve the listener’s wearied ears. Death metal purists will cry foul, as always, at the frequency of those moments, but it’s hard to argue too loudly when the breakdowns are this heavy. As evidenced by the album title, many songs scream out against organized religion. The topic has been done many a time already, but somehow on
The God Delusion it adds a bit of menace to the formula. Between the album cover and the lyrics themselves, this album just feels a little bit more rebellious,
dangerous perhaps, than other similar releases.
Deathcore in 2015 has been on the up and up. Releases from I, Valiance and Aversions Crown have been reigniting exactly what fans love in the genre. The brutality is being pushed to new heights and that fun factor is greater than ever. A Night In Texas are just adding to that rising tide.
The God Delusion is one of the most evil and insanely heavy deathcore records in recent years and fans of the genre would do well to check it out.
