Review Summary: Here we go again....
Chelsea Grin. The infamous American deathcore band have done little to distinguish themselves from the myriad of -core bands that try to be as "brutal" and "heavy" as possible. Yet despite this, they have acquired a large and loyal fanbase that loves nothing more than to "brodown" to the numerous chugs and breakdowns that plague their sophomore release, "My Damnation"
Album opener "The Foolish One" starts with lead singer Alex Kohler screaming his layered vocals followed by a half decent breakdown, breaking into average deathcore chugs. "The Foolish One" at least shows some, and I mean some, signs of maturity. The leads are not bad and the breakdowns are, for the most part, tolerable. One of the saving graces of this album was that the opener wasn't another pointless, one minute breakdown "intro".
With "The Foolish One" being an above average, song, the listener may think that Chelsea Grin may just release a decent album. All expectations are crushed by "everlasting sleep" and "behind the veil of lies". These songs showcase everything that is hated about deathcore. Mindless chugging? Check. Stupid and all-round lame breakdowns? Check. Yet despite the monotonous ways of these tracks, a few riffs and leads are actually not too bad, showing that CG actually have talent.
"Kharon" is another of the "meh" intrumental interludes. Not bad, not good, but at least the listener gets a break from the chugs for a while. This leads up to easily the strongest point of the album.
The title track is a good example of what CG could actually achieve if they cut the laziness out of their music. Whilst the first minute of this song isn't much tot talk about (apart from kohler's vocals, which are very well used on this song), the rest of the song (excluding the mind-numbingly boring outro breakdown) shows that CG have potential to write good deathcore. The strong death metal-esque riffage, half-decent chugs and a very, very strong breakdown with Kohler screaming demonically at the 2:40 make for a really good deathcore song.
With the next song, "Cursed" again shattering any expectation, "calling in silence" shows some competent riffs and leads, with tolerable breakdowns. Something that cannot be said about the following two tracks.
Album closer "All hail the fallen king" features Whitechapel throatsmith Phil Boseman, and the addition of his vocals help to make for a half-decent track and an alright closer to a disappointing album
This album yet again shows the tendencies that give deathcore the bad reputation it has; but not without some promising sections. It is obvious from the leads, solos, drumming and vocals that this band has talent and could achieve much higher than they currently do, however that will only happen if they can break out of their generic ways and try to be original.
PROS:
Solid drumming
Some cool riffs and leads
Strong vocals
The occasional good breakdown
The title track
CONS:
Monotonous as all hell
Generic and mediocre
Wasted talent
Only one, maybe two songs that are worth having
