The Inquisition. What a show!	A personal view at the negative aspects of Deathcore breakdown compositions, and a cry for help. Originally posted on July 11th, 2010
ENOUGH IS E-GODDAMNED-NOUGH! Really, people, I understand that sometimes a slower breakdown is pertinant to songs, but this is absolutely ridiculous. For the first time in my life I officially lost all interest in a band through one song. I pride myself on the point of being someone who never passes judgement just on one song alone, giving bands an entire album or EP to leave a somewhat positive mark, and it's honestly very, very hard to get me to flat out say "This band sucks" or even give it a grade of 1 star out of 5. However, I finally met my match today, and that would be the new sensation sweeping the nation called I Declare War. I have yet to hear a band play such god awful, horrible Deathcore as I have with this act in my entire life, and since the spaw of Deathcore. Originally, I felt that the debut Whitechapel releases (demo included) were absolute dismal Brutal Deathcore or whatever you want to call it, though I still saw some redeeming qualities in the music that simply were just taken too far, and quite enjoyed songs like "Chased Through the Woods by a Rapist" for their somewhat unintentional comedic representation and overall presentation, but really there was still some potential found there. I thought that I had heard the worst when Suicide Silence went the way of early Job for a Cowboy on their second full-length offering and included horrible song structuring on plenty of songs, as well as an insane amount of what I deem "lazy breakdowns". However, all of this changed upon reviewing a sampler from Artery Records, and I simply cannot bite my tongue any more and issue the following proclamation to the Metal and -core universes: To all the Deathcore bands out there: In the efforts of keeping Metal as enjoyable as possible, this is a request from someone who was, is, and will be a fan of well done Deathcore music, Brutal or not, asking you to please refrain from continuing to hammer away at creating music that shows great drive and dedication to the sound of the style, stereotypical or otherwise, only to ruin it by succumbing to a simple case of laziness. Please quit using typical breakdowns that are slower then paint drying, especially when you plan to use decently heavy guitar chords in one riff that plays only a few times within an extended breakdown that is longer then necessary, one single guitar chord played and spaced out greatly through an extended breakdown, hitting one specific cymbol and nothing else as few times as possible that it can still be considered by scene kids as "part of the song" in an obnoxiously long breakdown that causes even the drummer to pass out while playing it or completely lose track of time, and other such heinous acts against music. These "efforts" show a great deal of laziness on the part of the composers and often completely ruin the entire song in the long run. True fans of an "-core" style even speak out against this, and the only people you attract are fans of music that simply obliterates proper song structuring, decency, and heaviness within the metal community just for some cheap shock value, or something of that frame of mine. Not only are you embarassing yourselves, but making a mockery out of a style that is finally taking root and becoming something presentable to many who would be considered elitists, as well as make this style seem like something dismal as it continues to grow and become something important within the Metal community in it's self. I ask all members of bands such as these to, please, refrain from composing any more breakdowns such as this, and try to create breakdowns that work within the song instead of just seem like attempts to go as slow as possible so the crowd can not even explode into their dancing ways, where the windmills and ninja kicks look as stupid as they do when being performed to an Origin concert, or in the name of Satan at Black Metal events, regardless of how small, horrible, or comical the Black Metal act you are dancing to may be. If you simply cannot refrain from writing this type of material, then please, do the world a favor, and hang up your musical instrument of choice and find a new hobby, or at the very least, move into another field where it would be more appropriate, such as Emo or Screamo, which would best represent a childish "I refuse to play" nature of these such breakdowns. Even go into an industrial act, which leaves open plenty of room to add a good amount of noise and Industrial-like tones and sounds into the background to kill the twenty seconds of dead air you put together for a twenty five second breakdown piece you simply have to play in such a lazy fashion. It would work better to your advantage too, as then the crowd could possibly have something to go ballistic over, or leave an opportunity to put something equally obnoxious in the mix as this form of breakdown composition to leave your audience of children on the ground spazzing like a bunch of mentally challenged patients in an asylum and call it the next evolution of dancing. In short, please quit destroying good music with material that absolutely sucks and ruins the Deathcore genre as a whole! Thank you, Apoch Weiss I would like to thank you for your time and allowing me to get this frustration off my chest, as it is really becoming a plague that must be stopped. If you agree, sound off in the guest book about your disgust. If you don't, feel free to sound off too! In my professional opinion, it's bands like this that are ruining the entire Deathcore scene, and one of the reasons I need to be so careful anymore and have me lumping in many Death Metal and Brutal Death Metal bands into this field before gaining any knowledge, ultimately causing me to pass over impressive acts simply because of similarities in logo design, artwork and song titles. I actually almost bought I Declare War's debut CD during my most recent CD purchase run, and held back because of how steretypical the logo design was to other acts infamous of this type of breakdown, and honestly, I'm quite glad I didn't give this band a chance before hearing that sampler. It's because of bands like this that this site exists, and I have a dedicated quest of alerting you, the readers of this fine web-zine, of the horrible acts that exist out there, amateurish or just lacking all concepts of what makes a song great and ever lasting, and why I do my best to bring the good bands, as well as these heinous acts, to your attention as quickly as possible prior to their release so that you, and those who believe in good music, don't wind up feeding the pig and causing more bands like this to fester and come to life. If we stop buying albums like this, then the labels will stop signing bands that pass out during their recording sessions, or at least put out material that sounds like they do. I ask you all, please join me in this quest. Speak out against bands that have to perform such music like this. Let your voices be heard, and let's try to put a stop to this style of Deathcore at the root of all it's evil power: Money. Comment on this editorial!