Review Summary: DEATH! ASCENSION! RESSURECTION!
Once a band with three guitarists, Impending Doom has dwindled down to 4 members on their new album
Baptized In Filth and it's a huge improvement. Personally, I never really got into the band, but they had a few good songs, and had some nice riffs every once in a while, but it just wasn't enough to catch my full attention. That is, until they dropped 2 of 3 guitarists. Any band with more than 2 guitarists is a plain mess, unless they use them all to their full potential. Impending Doom didn't do that, and thus their first 3 albums were generic-but-fun at best.
Baptized In Filth, however, is a prime example of what the now almost completely stale genre of deathcore can offer. Skullcrushing breakdowns (
Murderer,
Death, Ascension, Ressurection), brutal riffs (
Chaos: Reborn,
Angry Letters to God) and just overall tight and focused musicianship.
Each individual musician does what is asked of them and more. The drums are near flawless, and throw in some great fills and can range from very slow monotony, to breakneck blastbeats, all while providing a solid backbone to every song (listen to the title track to get what I mean). The bass is rarely audible, but when it is, at least it's trying to do it's own thing, and not just mindlessly follow the guitars. The guitars are looow. They sound almost djent, but take a more groove tone. The breakdowns, while mind-numbingly heavy, are very monotonous, and get old quickly. They could have much more with them, but they're decent nonetheless. The vocals are crisp, staying mostly in mid-range screams. In my opinion, the vocals are definitely the low point of the band, but having that been said, they aren't too bad. They just could've had more variety. Which leads me on to the 9th track,
My Light Unseen featuring Ryan of
Demon Hunter. This song could be passed for a Metallica ballad. There are clean vocals, clean(ish) guitars, and everything is packed with emotion. A huge high point for the album.
The songwriting hasn't progressed much. It's still pretty generic, featuring such deep lyrics like
The future... written in the past which is ungodly redundant, and the slightly disturbing
Giving birth to evil from the womb of hell. If lyrics aren't your main concern, they are easily overlookable and I guess it could be considered nitpicking, but those 2 lines in particular really bothered me for some reason. The only song with any thoughtful lyrics though is
My Light Unseen. In conclusion, if you are tired of the same old '-core' bands, give this album a shot, it's worth at least a listen.
Recommended Tracks
-My Light Unseen
-Death, Ascension, Ressurection
