Tag Archives: the acacia strain

A New Era of Correuption is the latest release from Tennessean deathcore troop Whitechapel that was released on Metal Blade June 8, 2010.

I would be lying if I told you that this album featured anything that is completely new for Whitechapel. That being said, this album is still drastically different from the band’s two previous efforts. From the very beginning of the album, the feel and textures of the sound are much different than the all-too-familiar sound of The Somatic Defilement and This Is Exile. A New Era of Corruption finally sounds like the band is making use of the fact they have three guitarists, rather than having three people playing the same riff simultaneously in nearly every song. There are a lot of solid guitar harmonies throughout the album, something that wasn’t used much outside of breakdowns on This Is Exile.

The next huge step Whitechapel took for this album was switching up some of the songwriting and breakdowns they used. While not overly boring, This Is Exile didn’t have a lot of variation amongst songs, but A New Era of Corruption seems pretty fresh from song to song. In addition to the songs being a bit more varied, there are also a multitude of texture and mood changes – something else not found in previous efforts. No song demonstrates this better than “Reprogrammed to Hate,” a song that isn’t simply slams and guttural vocals.

I should make it very clear that I’m not stating that A New Era of Corruption is vastly different than This Is Exile, because it’s not. There are a few tweaks made to the Whitechapel formula, such as multiple guest vocals from The Acacia Strain’s Vincent Bennett, but all of the things found on This Is Exile and The Somatic Defilement are still ever-present.

The only real complaint I have about this album is that it seems to be separated between a couple really killer songs and some other filler material. The album can be somewhat boring on the songs that seem to be the more obvious examples in which the three Whitechapel guitarists get into minor second “chug chug” mode the most. The first few tracks on the album are easily the most boring, but the album comes alive at track four with “Reprogrammed to Hate” when we finally see what these guys can do.

If you liked Whitechapel before; or just want some heavy-as-hell beatdowns with some interesting guitar harmonies, tempo changes, and solos here and there; this might be an album for you. An album that showed glimpses of maturity and progression in the band’s sound, but one that shows they’ve still got a bit more refining and growing as a band to go.

Track Picks:

“End of Flesh” and “A Prayer of Mockery”

Score:

6/10 devil horns