Whitechapel - the changing sounds of deathcore

The first three Whitechapel albums were good examples of U.S. deathcore, but the Tennessee bunch is now on their eighth album, and it is now a much more appealing type of music, not just deathcore for deathcore fans. Nowadays they have added tons of variety to their music, and one song by itself is probably not a good representation of all the things that they do. Some deathcore remains here and there, like in the deep growl and some of that breakdown energy, but there is more to it than chugging-and-breakdown growling going on. For instance, the melodic singing (similar to Opeth) is a big part of the album. They do songs that could be called "power ballads," if you can believe it, but more along the lines of "deathcore power ballads" (which is not really deathcore, is it?). Another way to look at Whitechapel nowadays is they are something like a former deathcore band that is doing something similar to what Opeth did during the first ten years: the spirit of Whitechapel is to go beyond a genre. Some of this music sounds very radio-friendly and has U.S. pop (yes, pop) sensibilities. It is all these things: Opethcore, emo deathcore, melodic extreme metal, and prog deathcore.

The point: People that have pigeonholed Whitechapel as deathcore may be very surprised to discover where the band is now (and for the last few years, actually). This is now new-era Whitechapel and the band is now confident that they can do many things beyond deathcore, and they are also finding out that their audience has also gotten older along with them, the fans have gotten married and have families, and have day jobs, and are no longer just angry "deathcore kids." The band's audience seems very ready to accept all the changes the band is doing, almost like the band timed things perfectly to the age of their fans. Of course, they have much older fans, and are getting much younger fans all the time now because the music is rather convincing, but the band's original base of fans seems a lot more ready for this more expansive and melodic sound. That probably would not have been the case back in 2008, and the band did not have the experience and confidence to do what they are doing now.

RECOMMENDATION: Begin with the last song (number 11) here below and see how far things have come since the debut album all those years ago in 2007.

Kin by Whitechapel