ALBUM REVIEW: Ressurect – The Walking Dead Orchestra

The world of deathcore has entered into a strange place over the course of the last few years. After pushing the boundaries of heaviness into untrodden realms with releases in the late 2000s, much like all genres after the first few waves of bands jump on board and make their mark, formulas and patterns begin to emerge and the excitement starts to wane. It’s in these circumstances that you get the response we’re currently seeing in the deathcore genre. The classic bands are removing themselves from what they see as a limited sound while true, faithful-to-the-sound, throwback bands emerge, firmly embracing the virtues that made that sound so great in the first place. That’s where THE WALKING DEAD ORCHESTRA come in.

Now in their seventh year as a band, THE WALKING DEAD ORCHESTRA are out with a re-release of their second full-length album Resurrect which sits firmly in the latter camp above. Across the album there’s a strong flavour of early THY ART IS MURDER (particularly in the caustic vocal delivery) and OCEANO. In terms of this scene, that is where the band’s roots are planted. As a general observation, next to a lot of the latter-day bands in this sphere THE WALKING DEAD ORCHESTRA have as bit more in the way of riffing which is refreshing though there is ample chug and beatdowns to appease their audience. It really can’t be said enough that Resurrect pulls all the tricks-of-the-trade and despite their embellishments in the guitar work on the intro of Vengeful Flavors for example, this is for people already in the know with deathcore.

This extends to the production too. Everything is hulked-up to the max. The drums are as blunt and unforgiving as you might expect. The chugging is accentuated while the tremolo picking sticks out of the mix like a dagger. In the same way that the riffs stray ever-so-slightly from what you would expect to hear on a record like this, so does the drumming, which gives off a whiff of LAMB OF GOD meets DYING FETUS groove metal on the intro of Vengeful Flavors and Area Of Desolation particularly. Like the large majority of these records though, there’s always a strong case of one-flavour-ness to it and Resurrect is no different. What doesn’t help this is that despite being split over 12 tracks, the 40 minute listening experience is often too much of one thing that the songs begin to meld together and the parts that stand out tend to get buried in the midst of the sameness of complexity and heaviness.

Resurrect is certainly enjoyable while you’re listening to it and for many people, this will be right up their alley, though when there’s really very little that strays from the conventional virtues of the genre, little is remembered by the end. So, with deathcore splintering in so many different directions, merging with various flavours of extremity, THE WALKING DEAD ORCHESTRA are holding on like defenders of the faith. Resurrect stays true to the course and there’s a certain level of admirability in that. Ultimately it boils down to where you sit with the tangent bands like they take. From the outside looking in it might look like a very one-note slab of cut-and-dried heaviness, and from the inside, well it’s very similar. The point is this is very much a record for the fans of the original deathcore movement who didn’t turn their backs on it. To those of you who ascribe to that, you’ll love this.

Rating: 6/10

Resurrect is out now via Unique Leader Records.

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