Winds of Plague
Against the World
Rating
Style: Symphonic Deathcore
Release date: 18 April, 2011
Playing time: 38:42
 

There's a battle being waged here between the deathcore nature of the band and additional elements that actually add something to the mix. There's so much variation that it keeps you off guard. At times I'm like, man this is really cool, and others where I'm like man, this is pretty terrible.

Lyrically, Winds of Plague is trying to assert how much they don't give a fuck, what they don't give a fuck about, what they think can fuck off, and when the fucking beat is going to drop. That's about it. At times they can almost come across as insulting to the intelligence. Vocally there's a division between the more gutteral vocals (though still not too low on the overall scale) and your hardcorish interchimer (who's more abrasive to listen to).

Guitar-wise, expect massive amounts of chuggery, which fluctuates across the scale from shitty to fairly good. The leads are decent when they show up. Stylistically, there's a fair bit of core to wade through, which is fairly awful (as in "California", which is enough to submarine any interest from the objective metalhead).

When they add melodic elements though, they tend to be cool. "The Warrior Code" has some kind of old-school martial arts theme as the backdrop, and is generally solid, but it's also short as it's more of an interlude. The keyboards are a strength whenever they show up, but they're kind of tossed in there and infrequent. The smattering of songs from their previous albums I've heard also strike me as being more melodic, so this would appear to be a step in the wrong direction.

While I like a couple of tracks on the album ("The Warrior Code", "Monsters"), the majority of it is sub-par, and to be honest, I'm probably more tolerant of this than most metalheads will be. I guess you could say people are going to avoid this like the... Winds of Plague.


Tracklist

01. Raise the Dead
02.
One for the Butcher
03.
Drop the Match
04.
Built for War
05.
Refined in the Fire
06.
The Warrior Code
07.
Against the World
08.
Monsters
09.
Most Hated
10.
Only Song We're Allowed to Play in Church Venues
11.
California
12. Strength to Dominate

Label: Century Media
Distribution: EMI (Denmark)
Reviewed by: The Rev
Date: 1 April, 2011
Website: www.myspace.com/windsofplague