I Killed Everyone – Necrospire Review

I Killed Everyone // Necrospire
Rating: 2.5/5.0 — But HMG is still alive—hah!
Label: Pavement Entertainment
Websites: facebook | myspace
Release Date: Out now!

I-Killed-Everyone-NecrospirePart of the description that accompanied the promotional material for this Chicago deathcore quintet’s debut full-length album is as follows:

“Unlike most bands of their genre, I Killed Everyone is influenced by classic death metal bands from the 90’s such as Suffocation, Cannibal Corpse, and Morbid Angel. The band incorporates many of these influences to form a unique sound of modern deathcore with undeniable classic death metal overtones.”

Needless to say, Happy Metal Guy scoffed at these words and nearly choked to death on his alphabet soup. Is there really a need to say that so-and-so deathcore band is influenced by the classic death metal bands Suffocation, Cannibal Corpse and Morbid Angel? Duh! Isn’t it a well-known fact that deathcore as a sub-genre started as a modification of classic death metal? Isn’t it generally agreed that Suffocation’s penchant for breakdowns is the most responsible for spawning deathcore? Why is there a need to try and sell this band by harping on pieces of common knowledge?

Happy Metal Guy thinks that what the band actually wants to say is that they are kinda like Whitechapel in that their sound is actually closer to death metal than deathcore. For further proof, the band even has an entry in Metal-Archives.com. And yes, after hearing this album, Happy Metal Guy agrees with them.

apes moshingBut in that case, why mention that your playing style is deathcore in the first place? Don’t sully the name of deathcore, yo! [Lulz. Yeah, let deathcore sully its own name. They’ve done a pretty competent job of it thus far. AMG] If there ain’t no crapload of breakdowns, it ain’t no deathcore. And yes, Necrospire doesn’t have a crapload of [mind-numbing] breakdowns; it has just enough to keep the death metalheads mosh-happy and the deathcore kids questioning the state of alternative music today.

It has a sound similar to that of a typical Suffocation album—drummer Tom Salazar is in blast-beating mode almost all the time and the guitars have an extremely down-tuned sound—except that vocalist Tim O’Brien dishes out growls that do not sound as deep and gruff as those by Suffocation karate-moshing master Frank Mullen.

Perhaps the most deathcore-like moment is the introduction to “The Devourer Beyond”, which begins with a half-minute breakdown and a gruff “OOOAARGH!” that gets repeated for echo effect. But this doesn’t seem enough to call I Killed Everyone a “modern deathcore” band; if anything, they’re probably considered to be deathcore because of their silly name. Other than that, every track is basically a rip-off of the works of the aforementioned old school death metal bands.

IKilledEveryoneSince originality is clearly not an issue the band cares much about, let’s talk about the skills of the instrumentalists instead. Salazar actually does a good job smashing the drum kit into smithereens on tracks such as “Grimoire I – Eviscerated”, “Born of the Abattoir” and “Grimoire II – One With The Void”. His drumming manages to sound forceful while maintaining a good rhythmic drive.

Guitarists Bill Williams and A. J. Kolar are also not too shabby with their axework due to the technical guitars heard in every song. In particular, tenth and last track “The Human Error” stands out as having more melody than all the previous nine songs combined, which is mainly achieved by utilizing arpeggio-tic sweep-picking. But hey, this is pretty standard stuff that any death metal band with a record deal ought to know. Praising such things in a review is merely an act of goodwill: that of struggling to find positive things to say about an unimpressive record [Are we doing that now?Steel Druhm].

Despite their bold name (pun totally intended), I Killed Everyone did not kill it or anyone with Necrospire. And next time, they should change their bio description to something less mockable.

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