WHITECHAPEL
As the death metal genre continues to explode, Knoxville’s Whitechapel
stand bloody head and bruised shoulders above the pack. With a ruthlessly
brutal aural assault built upon merciless blastbeats and spine- destroying
breakdowns, their three guitarists deliver immense riffs and monstrous leads
while vocalist Phil Bozeman vomits out lyrics that avoid clichés and give fans
something to think about as they scream them back. Basically stated, this is as
shit-your-pants exhilarating as modern metal gets.
Formed in 2006, it did not take local metal fans long to realize that
they had something very special going on in their midst. “We went from fifty of
our friends coming to our shows to two hundred people coming out inside of six
months,” guitarist Alex Wade states. “We’ve always held ourselves to a certain
level of professionalism, we worked our asses off, and I think we definitely
offered something that a lot of bands in the scene did not.”
Building such momentum, it is unsurprising that the sextet – rounded
out by guitarists Ben Savage and Zach Householder, bassist Gabe Crisp, and
drummer Kevin Lane – soon found themselves courted by record labels, signing to
the UK’s Siege Of Amida, for their 2007 debut, The Somatic Defilement (with
Candlelight handling the US release). Hitting the road hard, both their profile
and army of fans grew rapidly. Inside of a year, they were signed by Metal
Blade following an intense bidding war between eight labels hungry to add the
Tennessee wrecking crew to their roster, and the band immediately set about
working on their second album, the titanic This Is Exile.
A quantum leap forward in terms of song writing and focused vitriol,
This Is Exile threw a gauntlet down to all others trying to crowd into the
genre alongside them. Admitting that the lyrical content on The Somatic
Defilement was limited to “typical brutal death metal stuff – songs about evil
ways to kill people and that kind of thing”, Bozeman approached This Is Exile
in a far more cerebral manner, uniting the songs through a core concept. “The
record was a lot more about the kind of evil that actually exists in the
world,” the vocalist states. “It was about three specific people who hunger
after power, which leads them to starting a diabolical war that ends the world.
I was really proud of it, because it had a lot more feeling and maturity about
it, and it gave people something a little different.”
Having sold 6000 copies of This Is Exile in its first week, the band
once again toured relentlessly, playing shows in the US, Canada, and Europe,
and sharing the stage with such luminaries as Cannibal Corpse, Slayer,
Killswitch Engage, Unearth, Behemoth, and Chimaira, in the process shifting
more than 55,000 units. Not a bad feat for a band that most likely cause rock
radio programmers to hide quaking beneath their desks.
Following up such a punishing album would be an unenviable task for
most, but Whitechapel are just getting started, and A New Era Of Corruption,
which was produced by Jason Suecof (The Black Dahlia Murder, Job For A Cowboy)
and features guest appearances by Deftones’ Chino Moreno and Vincent of The
Acacia Strain, showcases a group who are imposingly focused and determined to
write the heaviest, most intense and dynamic music possible. “We didn’t want to
put out ‘This Is Exile: Part Two’, and this is definitely a real progression
from that record – but, at the same time we wanted it to sound like
Whitechapel,” Wade asserts. “Having played with bands like Slayer and Cannibal
Corpse, you realize that one of the reasons they’ve been around so long is
because they’ve created a certain sound and they’ve stuck to that. Fans want to
hear their favorite band sounding like their favorite band, and while we’ll
always grow, that’s something I think we’ll strive for on every record from now
on.”
Bozeman expands on this, stating that “The first two records are just
riff after riff after riff, but this time we have more of a verse-chorus
approach, and I think that makes the songs more memorable. Everything is still
just as brutal and just as intense, it’s just a little more structured, and
that makes for better songs.” And as the band has progressed sonically, so have
Bozeman’s lyrics, who this time has jettisoned a concept-based approach but
remains just as focused, unleashing a surge of apocalyptic wrath as he covers
issues such as the devolution of society into violent, hateful human beings (“Devolver”),
the increasing corruption and violence of the post9/11 world (“Breeding
Violence”), and the circumstances surrounding the tragic death of his own
mother (“Murder Sermon”).
Primed to take A New Era Of Corruption to hungry audiences around the
globe, Whitechapel are continually proving themselves an indomitable force, and
their fan base is primed to grow and grow as more people are exposed to their
unique brand of sonic violence. Prepare to be corrupted.
