Review Summary: The Defiled truly do stand out from the endless slew of post-metalcore carbon copies, yet despite their crushing brand of industrial flecked groove metal this album is deficient in both imagination and direction, dulling as the album progresses.
Slickly produced as this effort (the band's debut) may be, and as captivating as their macabre appearance is, The Defiled fall well short of being the saviours of British metal that many would profess them to be.
The album opens by way of eerie samples before introducing waves of Meshuggah-style heavy down tuned guitars, as 'In The Land Of Fools' presents the illusion of a band with a strong musical identity to match their goth chic appearance, their sound marrying the haunting synths and sound effects of industrial with relentless mosh friendly grooves. This illusion remains intact with follow-up 'Call To Arms', an anthemic and mustering (if repetitive) onslaught of breakdowns and keyboard flourishes. Unfortunately, the formula established by the two opening tracks repeats itself ad infinitum until gothic acoustic closer 'Final Sleep', although the rifftastic 'The Resurrectionists' stands out as a circle pit inducing crowd pleaser. All in all, between the constantly recycled thrash riffage and frontman Stitch D.'s tuneless clean vocals this LP fails to truly impress as each track gradually becomes indistinguishable from one another.
It's hard not to be cynical about this record, as The Defiled truly do stand out from the endless slew of post-metalcore carbon copies, yet they don't stand out quite as positively as one might want them to, which is a shame considering their larger than life appearance and inspired live shows. One can only hope for the sake of British metal they redeem themselves with their next long player, as 'Grave Times' falls well below the expectations this listener had of the London band.
Stand out tracks; 'In the Land of Fools', 'Call To Arms', 'The Resurrectionists', 'Final Sleep'
