This is an archived post from our old website. Please excuse us if it looks a bit off, we are working through old posts and making sure they look tip top!
Of metal’s many, many, many sub-genres, deathcore is one that I’ve never quite explored that fully. In the labyrinthine world of metal genre-labelling, it can get a little difficult to keep up.
Therefore, as a self-described ‘technical deathcore’ group, I wasn’t sure what to expect from The Antiquity’s recently remastered EP, ‘A Colossal Infliction of Hate’.
The self-titled opener – well produced, as is the rest of the album – begins portentously enough, the riffs building up slowly but solidly to a decently heavy crescendo. A very good intro to the record as a whole.
The following song, ‘Quarantine’, really brings the heaviness up a notch, the vocals shifting smoothly between the guttural grunts and shrieks familiar to anyone who’s ever heard even the smallest sliver of death metal. At times this one reminded me a little of some of The Black Dahlia Murder’s earlier work; as I say, this genre remains one I’m somewhat unfamiliar with, but I’d like to think this is complimentary nonetheless.
‘BLASTthehorse’ is a track I particularly like, mixing the technicality and stark brutal sound of death metal with the type of brevity and aggression which is easily comparable (in the best way possible) to early ‘80s hardcore.
Not to say this album is a rush of pure speed and anger from end to end – album closer ‘Path of the Ascetic’, while starting in a similar vein, ends with a chugging, groove-orientated riff that even the like of metal heavyweights such as Corrosion of Conformity would be proud to call their own.
As I mentioned throughout the review, deathcore isn’t perhaps my favourite metal sub-genre. After hearing ‘A Colossal Infliction of Hate’, however, and with The Antiquity set for a full UK tour during 2014, now may be as good a time as ever to open up to something a little different.
You can listen to the remastered version of ‘A Colossal Infliction of Hate’ right here, on their Bandcamp page.
