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After such a sudden twist of musical output on their follow-up album Shadows of Vanity, it's almost hard to picture the band returning more to their original straight forward Metalcore roots, but in a sense, the band has. After parting with their established vocalist Mark McChesney, who also performs with The Autumn Offering if you couldn't tell by the extreme musical similarities between their newer material and Shadows of Vanity, the band has finally got back on the horse and focused moreso on crafting the material for their new release around their more recent musical output, as well as their straight forward Metalcore sound to put together an album that should not be overlooked. God Grant Me Vengeance doesn't quite have the same impact that Shadows of Vanity had, however it really does follow the same kind of structural patterns. The only difference to this release is that the band is bringing in a more straight forward Metalcore sound then on the previous effort, and in many cases it works out well. The first time you'll hear a cohesive version of this is on the second track, "Lament for the Fallen", which really incorporates more Metalcore verses and bridges, while still retaining some melody for the chorus, especially at the end of the song when everything just picks up for a rather impressive climax. Of course, this track features singing, which really winds up suiting the music better this time around, while the shouting and screaming seems to hit a more range, but just doesn't quite has the same forceful impact on previous efforts, mostly due to the higher pitch. On "God Grant Me Vengeance", the song gears more towards the straight forward Metalcore sound that "Condemning the Bloodline" starts you off with, as well as includes group chants, which are a bit too overmodulated and don't quite sound like a gang, but more digitized then anything, but also has vocals that range from lower shouting to higher raspier screams, all of which wind up being altered through effects, but they wind up sounding nice. The problem is that, while these additional ranges work well in adding variety to the vocals of the album, the main vocal range is just too high and kind of conflicts with the music, which would sound much better with a lower vocal approach. While the band has some traditional Metalcore tracks on here, like "Condemning the Bloodline" and "God Grant Me Vengeance", there seems to be more tracks focused on incorporating a melodic aspect to the music. This winds up leading to some problems as practically all of them follow the same scream the verse, sing the chorus pattern that has become a bit of a plague in melodic bands over the years. "Lament for the Fallen" and "Scars in Oblivion", among others, are set up the same way "Deliverance" and "Eternal Uprising", and by the time you reach that last track you're going to start getting a little fed up with the repetition of the basic song structure, as well as some of the more complex song structures including how the vocals are performed and where bridges often pop up, especially if you own the band's last album, as plenty of the patterns of the tracks on the album appear here as well down to the way the vocals are performed, except for "Lament of the Fallen" and "The Rebirth" which really incorporate a stronger vocal range in comparison. Outside the change up in the vocal range, the only other thing not similar would be the effects added on certain songs, such as having them sound a little muffled and in the background on tracks like "Eternal Uprising", but even then it starts getting ridiculous as they, more often then not, appear in the music almost at random and times where they aren't even that necessary other then to try to build up an intensity that doesn't really exist. But, all repetition aside, there are still some tracks on here that may follow the same pattern, but are still vary catchy. Perhaps the most addicting off this entire album would be "Hours of Decay", which has some really intense Metalcore aspects with guitar hooks thrown in here and there, and the singing used in the chorus and during the somewhat mandatory sung line that is muffled in the background just sounds more powerful then anything else on this album, aside "The Rebirth" of course which is just phenomenally executed. "Eternal Uprising" is another impressive track with the vocal approach that was taken to the clean sing and makes it yet another highly addicting track. The only problem to this is that the track prior to it, "Interlude" is simply forty six seconds of "Eternal Uprising" just cut off and given it's own track, which actually makes no sense as the song sounds horrendous without listening to "Interlude" first. All in all, God Grant Me Vengeance is still an alright album, but given the wait betwen this and their previous effort, it just wasn't worth the wait. Even though there's plenty of catchy tracks on here, there's also plenty of repetition, not to mention that the album just feels like Shadows of Vanity recycled with new chords and a new vocalist. If you enjoyed their last effort, chances are you'll enjoy God Grant Me Vengeance, but it won't be the same exctreme. While this more Melodic Metalcore sound is great and performed fluidly by Hell Within, it just gets dull after a while, leaving the listener putting this one aside with a feeling of sorrow that they've pretty much heard it all before. |
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