Whitechapel - This is Exile Review
by Dave Jordan
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Back in February, I had the privilege of interviewing Alex Wade, one third of Whitechapel's devastating guitar trio. In the interview, Alex mentioned that This is Exile would be a more sophisticated, darker take on their already murky sound.
It was with this in mind that I listened to Whitechapel's latest studio album, and I can assure you he was more right about the above statement than I could have imagined. On This is Exile, the riffs are more brutal, the drums more crushing, and the vocals more dark and dreary than on the band's impressive debut effort The Somatic Defilement. Throughout the album, the band takes on a more death metal vibe than the first album, but they still maintain their knack for crafting heavy breakdowns.
The vocals on the album have matured as well. Frontman Phil Bozeman still utilizes every last note of his wide vocal range on the record, and the lyrics stray from the female-slicing misogyny that characterized the debut album towards – as Alex said in the aforementioned interview – "more mature aspects of darkness".
On a couple occasions, the band also employs gang-vocal friendly lyrics which are another interesting wink at the hardcore aspect of the band's sound (see "The Father of Lies").
In summary, this is a great release for Whitechapel that is bound to keep people tuned in on CD and headbanging each and every night on stage. Pick this one up.For Fans of: A Different Breed of Killer, the Breathing Process, Annotations of an Autopsy.
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Whitechapel - This is Exile Rating:8.0
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