Bloodlust

Metalcore - a name describing a musical amalgam between heavy metal and hardcore. Traditionally, metalcore has focused more on the hardcore aspects with breakdowns, trademark drumbeats and vocals, etc. I am one of those individuals from the metal side of the tracks that fell in love with metalcore. After attending the New England Metal and Hardcore Festival for the last 3 years, I have heard West Coast metalcore (As I Lay Dying, Terror) and East Coast metalcore (Killswitch Engage, Diecast), and can say with an open mind that metalcore has lit a fire under the ass of the metal community. Yes, many metal purists have lamented metalcore as the nect harbinger, much like nu-metal 5 years ago. To me though, metalcore represents a re-emergence of the word "metal" in modern American society, and now internationally as well. It's a simple fact that the face of metal is becoming harder and harder to recognize with the division of genres becoming blurred while creating new ones along the way. Metalcore, to me, is the fresh face of metal; a motley piece of the aggression pie that ignores the rules and plays their own sound. Lately however, stagnancy has seeped its way into the storybook land of metalcore. Where at one time many hardcore fans and metalheads were celebrating the merits of new, up and coming acts as original and fresh, now there is talk of the genre becoming watered down with bands like Winter Solstice representing the "copy cat" acts that are playing paint by number riffs, and even worse, emo acts taking the image and aggression of metalcore and adding it to their bits to give it that extra pizazz amongst their frequent hearfelt, albeit crappy acoustic interludes. In music, when stagnancy takes over, true musicians who are not merely banking in on the success of the forebearers, will evolve their music. In the case of metalcore's evolutionary tendencies, evolving their hardcore roots into more of a metal sound is a natual segway. Bands like The Black Dahlia Murder, A Life Once Lost, Every Time I Die, and The Red Chord are creating names for themselves from becoming stand out grindcore and death metal acts. A new addition has come to the doorstep of the Metal Reviews community, and this new addition represents a division in my mind between watered down stereotypical metalcore, and the new progression the genre is taking. The name of this new addition is Through the Eyes of the Dead. Launching their debut album Bloodlust on October 25th in the United States, the nation will become judge, jury and executioner to yet another metalcore act. Purists will spit on it, hardcore fans will jizz on it, and those in between, will either hail it as a welcomed addition, or another waste of time and money. Personally, I enjoy this album, however, in comparison to The Black Dahlia Murder's latest output, Through the Eyes of the Dead comes in a distant second to those bands that have mastered their art. Bloodlust, while not being a monumental success, is an album worth listening to. It has catchy breakdowns, well placed blast beats, machine gun snare work, good gutteral vocals, and most of all speedy death guitar riffs with well placed harmonies that are not some cheap Gothenburg rip off, but genuine melodic death riffs. If you are a fan of modern death metal and can tolerate or even, god forbid, enjoy metalcore, this one is worth a listen. Check out the future of what metal has in store for us in the U.S.