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By RYAN MAVITY
Knoxville band Whitechapel certainly has studied at the Cannibal Corpse school of heavy metal. With a mix of thrash and sludgy tempos, combined with maybe the deepest death grunts ever recorded and song titles like “Devirgination Studies,” Prostatic Fluid Asphyxiation” and “Festering Fiesta,” these guys are certainly well schooled.
The Somatic Defilement isn’t a bad album, just a fairly undistinguished one. Grindcore and death metal elements are all here: blast beats, death grunts (which occasionally sound like a man drinking a 32-ounce Big Gulp) and chaotic time shifts (bolstered by the band’s three-guitar attack). But nothing on the album really stands out, except for the alternating vocals, which aren’t often seen in extreme metal. The problem with the album is that all the noise doesn’t really add up to songs, certainly none that are memorable. Oh sure, it rocks a decent portion of the time and there’s enough here to keep the moshers happy, but there’s not enough good stuff to keep a listener coming back for more.
Whitechapel has some elements in place to be a unique band in the death/grindcore genres: three guitars, a unique vocal arrangement, some impressive drumming and even a cool band name. Now the next order of business is to make the songs live up to the parts.
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