Review Summary: This is No “Scrolls Of The Megilloth”
Religion is always a touchy subject, you don't need to be a genius to realize that, but what happens when ones most precious beliefs get mixed up in music, and well for the most part it could play in favor of the music giving it that raw and passionate edge;
This isn't what's going on in here; this is plain deathcore by numbers, its only twist? Its got Religion fueled lyrics, now lets try to stay away from the religion side of the music and focus on the previous, the music
With Blood Comes Cleansing’s Golgotha starts out with about 25 seconds of static then a small riff builds up the intro followed by the second guitarist doing the same riff one octave higher, then we are introduced to the title track, Golgotha has a very raw feel to it, not in the good way, the vocalist sounds a bit too high in the mix, and the guitars are left almost in the background of the mix, the bass is inaudible as in all deathcore, the only time the guitars take the center stage is in the breakdowns (I don't think this is intentional as the vocalist doesn't really sing in most of the breakdowns)
Now I got a pretty big problem with Golgotha as a whole, and I realized it right away, there is very little that stands out one song from the other, the breakdowns are the quintessential chug chug sound, and the leads in almost all songs are played in tremolo picking which contributes to the fact that when a song ends in a breakdown (e.i. Golgotha) you cant differentiate it from the tremolo picking beginning of the next one (e.i. Mark Your Words & Fearless Before Opposition)
It's not all entirely bad though, highlight track My Help has a very As I Lay Dying feel to it in the intro riff, the whole track morphs into a decent to good metalcore song, and the singing is very enjoyable giving a nice change between hardcore harsh singing, growling, and the occasional pig squeal (near the end of the song), the guitar leads are very well executed and the only weak spot in this song would have to be the time both guitars stop what good vibe they had going for them and go into full chug chug mode, it cuts the whole flow of what the song had going, the lead picks up after the breakdown but its only for a few seconds which ruins a pretty decent song
Another highlight “Bring Out Your dead” posses the catchiest chorus in the whole album and a the singer shouts “bring out your dead” near the end of the song before launching into a breakdown (one cant help to wonder how crazy the pit can get when this part comes on), it also has one of the better intros of the entire album with a sweep like riff harmony from both guitarist, the breakdowns are not as choppy as the song doesn't entirely stop when they come, they just seem to flow a bit better, it probably wont be the best breakdown you will ever hear, but at least it shows a bit of variety in the music and I can appreciate that
Which also brings me to another problem with this album, the breakdowns, hated by many and rightfully so as most bands forget how to create a good breakdown and go into chug chug mode, the breakdowns here are of that kind, whenever the band is doing good progress in the songs its all just halted by a breakdown (and they are many as they are bad) and it just makes the listener loose all the attention, no matter how little it was
All in all this album is just deathcore by numbers as I stated before, it brings nothing new to the table, fans of Carnifex, old Annotations of An Autopsy, Salt the Wound and Underneath The Gun will be pleased, as for the rest, stay away from this
