Deathcore is an interesting genre for me. There are moments where I can enjoy it and then out of nowhere they jar in useless breakdowns just for the sake of having them. Seeing this on Labyrinthe's info "“The Depths Of Hell is 100% pulverizing aggression that fuses death metal tinged riffing, confrontational lyrical imagery and calculated breakdowns" I was admittedly going into this skeptical.
I've given this a few listens now and I'm still up in the air about it. I didn't write is off and hate it immediately like most deathcore, but I'm not completely enjoying it either. The album is most definitely beyond heavy. I'll give them that. The production is spot on for this style.
The 10 tracks on here have some cool moments. A lot of those moments are the brutal death metal/slam death influenced riffs. The breakdowns are very often quite generic and for me a downside for the album. For fans of the genre it's damn near necessary. My biggest gripe with the album is the "confrontational imagery" of the lyrics and layout. It comes across with a horror theme and overall evilness about it. They all seem forced and they're definitely cheesy. I can't bad mouth the horror/gore themes as death metal definitely delves into some ridiculous territories, but the satanic parts are a little ridiculous. This is especially true of the song Gutter Sludge (ironically my favorite on the album) and the last track where they keep chanting 666. It just comes across as a detractor for me.
Fans of deathcore should greatly enjoy this as they're far better than most deathcore bands I've listened to over the years. Fans of brutal death metal, you may not enjoy this as much as it's jam packed with metalcore breakdowns. It's not amazing, but it's definitely not awful either.
Staff Rating
3.50/5
User Rating
4/5
