Review Summary: If you're a fan of deathcore, then dive right in and enjoy. If you're not, then stay far away.
Deathcore started around 2002 (though it really didn't get it's kick until about 2005/2006) then it blew up huge thanks to the help of
Emmure,
As Blood Runs Black, and
Bring Me the Horizon. This recent trend has led to many “copy, paste, and print” bands, and I'm glad to say that
King Conquer is one of the better deathcore bands though some improvement could definitely be appreciated.
King Conquer provides a heavy hardcore instrumental style (focusing on riffs, chugs, and breakdowns), and their impressive vocalist James style goes from a hard to understand, but pleasant growl to a high scream that resembles that of
Oceano (in a good way). The guitarists take a
Whitechapel route with there being 3 of them and there is a slight bit of technicality to the music. Now mentioning this it can be a tricky slope to execute on one side it can be a fun, enjoyable, and intense onslaught of heavy music. On the other side it can be stupid, mindlessly repetitive, and boring. King Conquer manage to do both.
Tracks like “The Beginning”, “Wide Open”, and “Decomposing Normality” manage to pump out some truly heavy tracks with pretty good breakdowns and technicality, but the track and album opener “Digitally Transmitted Disease” manages to be your average cookie cutter deathcore song with boring chugs, and the breakdowns being predictable as ever. The best track however manage to be “Archaic” with it's slight melodic edge and manages to separate itself from the pack. The main problem I find with this album is that it's pretty much balls out from beginning to end and really manages to wind down by the end of it all, but hey that's deathcore.
King Conquer has shown some progression and improvement then your average deathcore band, but really needs to change up the formula with more melody, or possibly add more technicality (they do have 3 guitarists, it isn't a stretch). If you're not a fan of deathcore there's little chance this album is going to change your mind, however if you manage to enjoy some deathcore you'll probably find some enjoyment in this “Decomposing Normality”.
