Death Metal enjoyed by emo kids? Surely not!
Formed in 2002 in Oakland, California, All Shall Perish played at every kind of show imaginable, and soon found themselves embraced by the diverse bay area music scene, from emo kids to tech death heads. Having recorded a 3 track EP, Japanese label Amputated Vein Records decided to release All Shall Perish's first full length record, 'Hate.Malice.Revenge' in August 2003, which soon became an underground favourite. However, only a small pressing was made and after moving to German-American record company Nuclear Blast in 2004, the band decided to re-release Hate.Malice.Revenge so that it would be available to a wider audience. After 2 years in the making and after gutting many bay area bands for members to make this album, Hate.Malice.Revenge, is finally here.
Now I have to be honest, when Hate.Malice.Revenge first turned up on my doormat, cited as 'Metal/Hardcore', my heart sank, as that type of music is far from usually being my cup of tea. But after a couple of plays I came to find that Hate.Malice.Revenge is surprisingly listenable and yet still manages to maintain its heavy edge.
The first track, Deconstruction, is a blare of frantic guitars, thumping drums and deathly, thunderous screams over powerful rhythms and melodies. Laid to Rest continues the pattern and the impressively frenetic drumming and arrangements allow All Shall Perish to prove that they are able to live up to and beyond expectations. Another standout track is Never Ending War, a powerful chunk of angry, frenzied death metal.
Personally, I felt that the only downside to this release is that although each song bursts with energy and passion, all the songs seem to sound extremely similar. Maybe it's just my untrained ear for Metal and Hardcore, but after a couple of listens I found it hard to distinguish between each song, as they all seemed to contain the same components - varying tempo and similar vocal melodies and instrumental riffs.
Despite this, it must be said that this is a very impressive release and having managed to win over someone who has never hid her distaste for all things Metal, I'm pretty certain that fans of the genre will enjoy it even more than I did.