Review Summary: A little more palatable, a little more sanitized, but AngelMaker's particular merits still shine through.
The word "generic" is definitely overused these days, but sometimes not entirely without reason. Even bands whose sound is unmistakably their own tend to gravitate towards certain tropes, be it sound or production-wise, that makes them sound less distinguishable from each other than their best interests would dictate. Angelmaker has in my view usually avoided that problem, but this most recent album of theirs may be seeing them slightly guilty of this. Still, that by no means implies there is nothing interesting to be had here.
While temptation may be strong to call any deathcore band "generic", Angelmaker's formula has always been so interesting it deserves acknowledgement. Seemingly borrowing tropes from the entire tumultuous history of the deathcore genre, Angelmaker's discography may be used as a condensed tour of the entire genre's history. From Despised Icon-esque slams, dissonant chugs, gang shouts, two-steps and pig squeals, through the quirky, whimsical melodies and audio sample intros of the Myspace era, to modern deathcore's emphasis on musicianship, emotional load and flirtation with black metal - all of that could be observed in Angelmaker's sound over the years, with only conspicuous, emphasized and built-up to breakdowns never being a staple of their sound (a good thing - those tended to draw the most vitriol towards the genre back in the day). It's almost like they never wanted to be "a" deathcore band, but THE deathcore band, encapsulating the entire repertoire of the genre's tropes. That has in varying ways, doses and configurations been true right until Angelmaker's last album, "Sanctum".
However, this time things feel a bit more sanitized, modern, shall I say "productized"? It's not necessarily a bad thing (in fact I made a similar observation about Despised Icon's latest album, "Shadow Work"), and there is still a lot of that rage and sorrow they had before shining through the music on "This Used To Be Heaven", even though the melodies aren't quite as emotion-laden as in some songs from "Sanctum", and the production isn't as raw and deathly as on the self-titled album. Vocal-wise things seem a small step down since the departure of death metal vocalist Mike Greenwood, who was capable of very particular deep growls and some of the shrillest screams ever heard in extreme music, though his replacement, Ian Bearer (formerly of Rings of Saturn) does a perfectly capable job likewise. The lack of any pig vocals (though they were never used a lot before in the first place, to be fair) might add to the palatability of this release to many listeners, and it definitely contributes to making this the easiest Angelmaker album to date to get into.
But let's talk about the good stuff. Alluding to my earlier observation about the word "generic" being overused - it might be easy to levy that judgment, but only after one has heard dozens of bands in a genre can it be fair to do so. Angelmaker have always stood out from among their peers thanks to their embrace of melodic black metal and melancholic melodeath elements. While many bands attempt it, what Angelmaker beat them out first and foremost on is honesty - their melodies really pierce and carry emotion and sorrow on par with the efforts of many strictly melodeath bands, something most other deathcore bands struggle to convey with even remotely similar conviction and skill. This is very true on "This Used To Be Heaven", perhaps more so than ever before. While the rawness and ugliness of their earlier records may have been sanitized and made more palatable here, the maturity of the songwriting and the embrace of melody continues to evolve and improve - which is an acceptable tradeoff.
The bands' love of musicianship has always been visible through their liberal, honest, and skilled employment of guitar solos by the leading guitarist trio - something most trend-surfing deathcore acts could only dream to match (if they knew better, at least), as well as by their penchant for writing beautiful, melodic instrumentals that contrast their brutal, slammy chug moments in other songs. This time, if we count the intro, we get three such interludes, including a long one in the form of a sequel to the splendid "Citadel" from their debut album, "Dissentient". Black metal elements are embraced to the fullest this time - a constant, but slow evolution that makes the band sound gradually more similar to meloblack acts such as Dissection or Old Man's Child and less to The Black Dahlia Murder's sense of melody. And still, despite no piggy worship in the vocals and a clean, modern production, the band's brutality and ingenuity isn't curtailed to any worrying degree, shining through in moments of raw, technical anger and involved melodies, all still in a suitable hardcore-punky package, as expected of the genre.
All in all, definitely a good album to show someone to get them into the genre - with enough musicianship, compositional maturity and melodic focus to earn a nod of approval from even the discerning metalhead and enough raw, deathcore brutality to placate most gauge earring wearers. The production may make this album sound like a lot of others you may have heard recently, but that definitely isn't enough to earn it the label of generic.
