I don’t know about you, but I like my progressive deathcore to be weird, crazy, and absolutely off the hook (see here for more details). There’s a time

9 years ago

I don’t know about you, but I like my progressive deathcore to be weird, crazy, and absolutely off the hook (see here for more details). There’s a time for the more modern trend of slowing it down and djenting it up, but there will always be a special place in my heart for the likes of The Faceless, Arsonists Get All The Girls, Born Of Osiris, and their cohorts.

Unfortunately, all of these bands have either moved on from these roots or fallen apart entirely. I wake in dismay every day with that fact as the first thing on my mind; every morning, I step out of bed and think “golly, I really wish we could have had more of the stuff on Akeldama, The Game of Life, The New Reign, and other similar albums”. So imagine my overwhelming joy upon discovering Recite The Raven, a band that is breathing new life into the shambling husk this genre has become.

Their modern take on the 2008-era deathcore sound spices the mix up quite a bit: throwing in a dash of the contemporary midtempo sound the genre now leans towards, a la Black Tongue, and a pinch of brutal death metal’s violently heavy riffing, they create enough of a cognitive link between them and their peers to not be pushed aside as some kind of revival relic (see: modern thrash bands). It’s not a common occurrence to see a band in this styling pop up with new material nowadays, and after even a cursory listen it becomes clear that these guys aren’t a gimmick at all: their balance of new and old is both punishingly heavy and intelligently-written, equal parts brains and brawn. It’s the ol’ one-two punch of baseball bat and scalpel, surgically sharp leads over bludgeoning grooves so beefy, they’ll take you out back and beat you into a pulp if you so much as look at them funny.

The source of their power lies in their creative backing rhythms and use of polyrhythmic grooves, with which they imbue into their songs an energy that strikes a poised and deliberate balance between the two disparate schools of deathcore thought. Slow, well-paced, and methodical, Recite The Raven is a vehement sonic bulldozer that steamrolls through their tracks with a sense of destructive glee. Their upcoming album, Of Form And Fatal Design, drops on November 1st. Prepare yourself.

Simon Handmaker

Published 9 years ago