Review Summary: Call them deathcore or death metal with breakdowns, I could care less. Either way As Blood Runs Black is just plain bad.
I’m honestly not quite sure who had the epiphany to incorporate a breakdown into a death metal song. I will say this though; the new generation of guyliner wearing, myspace stalking metal fans is eating this stuff up as if the modern day wheel is being reinvented. There is however a main problem with this sound like many trendy based ones: longetivity. Plain and simple the initial ‘wow’ factors of speed and brutality will wear off when you hear a younger band playing faster and cranking out heavier breakdowns. When you take the initial wow factor (if there was even one to begin with) away from As Blood Runs Black, you are left with an unoriginal sound that many have performed better and with their own trademarks.
Allegiance is a dull, repetitive, and painfully generic record which sparingly offers something interesting for listeners.
Right off the get go there are two things which will irritate the listener; the first comes in the form of a typical intro. The first track is 57 seconds of plain instrumentals made to pump up the listener. The second is the clean interlude in
“Pouring Reign”. While both tracks are decent for their purpose, many will feel ripped off. There are only ten total tracks present including these two. Translation; there are only eight real songs. But admittedly I would eventually get over this if what was present was high quality. Sadly that is not the case. Like many (read: all) of their peers, As Blood Runs Black lays down some fast down tuned riffs and pairs them with speedy drumming and a vocalist that sounds like he could be in about five other bands. The group exercises breakdowns in every track and whips out a few melodic leads here and there. Sounding quite familiar isn’t it?
This familiar sound hits listeners immediately in the opening
track track
“In Dying Days”. Blast beats sections, speedy and bland drop C riffs, and a blend of mid ranged screams and lower growls. The group incorporates the lovely choppy section to breakdown transition and comes off as a poor mans As I Lay Dying. Where things totally fall apart is in the breakdown. The group for some reason feels to need to center songs around a breakdown and to drag them out. When it happens, they chug away at the low C and offer nothing more. I mean, I’m not trying to say they suck at breakdowns or anything. It is incredibly aggravating how so much emphasis is put on these breakdowns and how boring they are. The group utilizes a chant section in
“My Fears Have Become Phobias” during the first breakdown in an attempt to forestall monotony. While that doesn’t succeed, the lead is actually respectable and adds a nice texture to the song. But once more they feel the need to use another breakdown and offer nothing more than a drop C chug. No backing riff, no diverse rhythms, just a plain chug. Regardless, the riffs and lead make this one an above average track as does the ridiculously fast double bass pattern during the outro.
As the record continues, the monotonous sound does as well. And surprisingly, so does the breakdown abuse.
“Strife (Chug Chug)” is a laugh out loud funny song which could probably be written by a high school band. Without exaggeration three quarters of the track is a low C chug breakdown. When they aren’t chugging away the group is dishing out a low riff you will swear you heard earlier in the record. Just about the only track on the record where the group sparingly uses breakdowns is
“The Beautiful Mistake”. Ironically, if it was a mistake to forget to add the 24 bars of a chug, it was a good one. The track ends up being the best the record has to offer. Sure it comes with fairly generic riffs and styling, but it has a nice flow to it and boasts the longest lead on the record. Heck even the breakdown features some deviation from their normal style as it makes use of an actual riff. Shame they didn’t figure this formula out sooner or duplicate it.
What the group did duplicate is just about every riff and breakdown present on the album. Both the energetic tremolo picked riffs and the single stringed, scale running ones offered nothing new to begin with and were quite underwhelming in terms of quality. What few leads are sprinkled in are enjoyable despite how loud they scream “I heard Miasma too.” While this aspect of the group is acceptable, their breakdown usage is just repulsive. Apologies for the repetition, but I have never encountered a band before who has absolutely no awareness about breakdowns. Maybe it’s just me, but tremolo picking the same low C string, in the same rhythm, in every song with no backing riff or melody is not interesting. This is a trait of the genre they abuse to no end. Throughout
Allegiance As Blood Runs Black offers nothing new and performs a generic sound quite terribly. Bands are doing this sound much better than these guys. Quite frankly, if Mountain Dew and the store brand are the same price, why would you settle for anything less?
Recommended Tracks
All My Fears Have Become Phobias
The Beautiful Mistake
Final Rating: 1.5/5
