Liste der Bands Deathcore This Eternal Cold This Eternal Cold

You know, I was fairly confident of liking this release. The ultra cool artwork along with reports that this is a fusion of black metal and deathcore all pointed towards something that could have been very good. Instead of a true fusion of black metal and deathcore, all I got was some really fucking dull breakdown-oriented deathcore with the occasional clean guitar break and some awful attempts at black metal vocals. Blackened Deathcore my ass.

Deathcore has become an over-saturated genre, this is fact. Much of the scene is comprised of bands willing to employ the same formula over and over again, leading to a scene where identity is all but absent. Of course, there are exceptions to this rule, with bands such as Grotesque Through Incoherence adding their own personal touch to the stagnating genre, but these bands are too few and far between to make much of an impact and the whole style has just become a parody of itself.

Which brings us onto This Eternal Cold. The band certainly display much, if not all of the symptoms of generic deathcore, yet the band at least TRIES to create a unique sound. Their self described black metal/deathcore sound really should have been something that the scene needed. Unfortunately though, most of the bands labelled as "blackcore" are nothing but generic chug oriented deathcore with the occasional keyboard interlude which apparently gives it a "blackened" feel. This Eternal Cold certainly have nothing in common with the black metal scene, whether from the early Norwegian scene or the modern.

The music on "This Eternal Cold" is comprised of open note breakdowns punctuated by the occasional uptempo riff. Vocals range from black metal style rasping to lower pitched growling. Each are painfully generic and add nothing to the music. The riffs on this album are unspectacular and forgettable, it doesn't help matters the guitar tone is god awful as well. In fact, the whole production on this album is crap. Vocals are way too loud in the mix, bass is nonexistent and the guitars and drums are far too quiet for their own good. I have a feeling that the low production values were an attempt to hide how bad and uninspiring the music actually is.

Even by deathcore standards, "This Eternal Cold" is embarrassingly mediocre. The band somehow manage to take the standard deathcore formula and make it even worse. The odd tremolo picked lead sounds as out of place as breakdowns in a Katy Perry song. The atmospheric ambient interludes would almost be laughable if they weren't so pathetic. There's very little in the way of actual intelligence on this album, and whilst lyrics weren't provided, from what I can make out they're awful as well. Really, there's very little redeeming qualities about this release and would strongly suggest all self respecting metal fans to avoid this album at all costs.