Impending Doom - The Serpent Servant
Release Date: March 31, 2009
Record Label: Facedown Records
Deathcore bands seem to be a dime a dozen these days; it's as if you hear the exact same thing with every band that displays their name in an unintelligible font. Well, as sad as it makes me to say this, Impending Doom's latest album, The Serpent Servant, is nothing but a deathcore album.
Every song sounds like the exact same thing. They come in and hit hard, then end with a breakdown. At some points they try to make it interesting by adding eerie guitar chords, either in a breakdown or just randomly. While in some places it sounds nice and easy to get into, other times they just seem really out of place. Impending Doom can definitely pull out the breakdowns; a very good example of this is in the song "Welcome To Forever." The track starts out with a smooth moving guitar riff and quickly transitions into the chugging guitars, deep growls and amazing drumming that has become a staple of the album at this point. Towards the end of the song, the drummer hints at a powerful breakdown before they explode right into it, and it sounds great. "Revival America" and "City Of Refuge" show that Impending Doom should take a slower approach sometimes. Although "Beginnings" seems like nothing but a big breakdown throughout the whole song, it's sure to get the pit moving when Impending Doom comes through your town.
The vocalist for Impending Doom, Brook Reeves, uses nothing but low growls, but maybe if he got some range in his voice, it would make this album a lot more interesting. He has mastered the low growl, and stays consistent in his screaming but it all sounds like something you've already heard in the deathcore scene. "Anything Goes" is a great example of Reeves' deep growls at their best, and though it works, it could have added depth if he'd switched it up every now and then.
Impending Doom seems to follow every trend in the deathcore community (besides being Christian, of course). Don't get me wrong; I'm sure there are more Christian deathcore acts out there, but Reeves isn't afraid to show his faith with lines like: "If you wanna find heaven, I'll show you the way." If you're really into the whole breakdown after breakdown, chugging guitars, and relentless double bass style, go ahead and give this album a listen because they do it as well, if not better than their peers.
Imagine a deathcore band that begins very fast and technical in their musicianship, with a shitty low "br00t4l" screamer, then add in three minutes of breakdowns towards the end...
Imagine a deathcore band that begins very fast and technical in their musicianship, with a shitty low "br00t4l" screamer, then add in three minutes of breakdowns towards the end...
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