ALBUM REVIEW: Yokai – Within Destruction

You don’t need to dig particularly deep to find some hate towards the WITHIN DESTRUCTION sound. Their audacity to fuse the obscenity of the slam genre with the more ‘mainstream’ sounds of deathcore made them an easy target for anyone who felt they were ruining the sanctity of a genre basically made up of awful production value and cliched riffing. This fusion of sounds more similar than most would like to admit made their previous record Deathwish a rather enjoyable and violent romp made up of some truly exciting moments, with rapid speed and bombastic breakdowns providing all an extreme music fan would need from 30 minutes of music. 

Even with an album that was genuinely great, WITHIN DESTRUCTION seem unable to avoid the tirade of anger towards them from certain sects of the extreme music scene, so it makes sense for them to simply double down on their own path and do exactly what they want to do. And their latest effort, Yokai, certainly feels like that is the case. The Slovenian group have added further influences into their sound and have tightened the slamming deathcore sound they’ve been working on over their career, alongside a rather strange obsession with everything Japanese while they’re at it. 

Immediately it’s clear that WITHIN DESTRUCTION are the latest band to join the electronic hype train, with scythe sounds opening the record before the title track officially kicks the record off with intent. There are certainly more notes taken from acts like NORTHLANE than there is from bands like DEVOURMENT, and whilst it feels like a progression, coming off the brutal success of Deathwish, this definitely feels like a missed attempt at diversifying the sound. Harakiri doesn’t succeed in making up for this either, with the lyrical substance being less interesting and more cringe than anything else. 

No Way Out picks the quality up a bit more, feeling more akin to what we’re used to from WITHIN DESTRUCTION than the rest of the album, and Alone serves as a true highlight of the album in general. These moments are few and far between amongst the rest of the album, sewn in between clean vocal choruses and weird, out of place dub moments that add little to the depth of the album except from putting the band firmly on the newest emerging trend within heavy music. Whilst there are moments of triumph punctuated throughout the record, Yokai feels more of a passion project for the band than a genuine attempt at progressing their sound, exemplified by Hate You being one of the biggest departures from the band’s previous sound and also being the lead single of the album. 

WITHIN DESTRUCTION have always had a tongue wedged firmly in their cheek, but up until now it has always remained a feature of their sound rather than the main event. Yokai feels like a band doing exactly what they want, regardless of how everyone feels about it, and given the reputation of the band themselves, this is definitely the best thing about the album as a whole. With this in mind though, Yokai still feels like a missed opportunity for WITHIN DESTRUCTION, with fewer moments of pit inducing triumph and more moments of confusion as to just why the band feel the need to fawn over Japanese culture and randomly inject metalcore tropes and electronic moments. It all feels off, but there is undoubtedly enough to keep some fans very much on the wagon, even if some may abandon ship altogether. 

Rating: 5/10

Yokai is out now via Ultra Heavy Records.

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