Review: Whitechapel - Recorrupted

 Whitechapel are probably the most respected out of all the modern deathcore acts. Having performed at shows with acts of a more genuine death metal caliber and frontman Phil Bozeman recently collaborating with Chimaira, it's clear that the group have been the main deathcore group to gain any kind of notification from acts of the two genres that are seen as the parents of the style they practice. Unsurprisingly, the group are often finding themselves with an ever-expanding fan base so wether you've gotten into them recently, or have stuck around since The Somatic Defilement, it's worth your time now to check out their new EP Recorrupted, while the group work on a new album.

Only one new song appears on the collection, called Section 8 and it's worth checking out. With a haunting opening, the song builds into an array of crushing guitar pummeling, as a dwindling doomy spell of devastatingly heavy deathcore follows, complete with Bozeman's easily identifiable pig squeals, Section 8 has all the qualities of a traditional Whitechapel song.
 Elsewhere, the group effectively manage to really make their cover of Pantera's Strength Beyond Strength their own beast. With the same kind of fury and aggression that the original delivered, the group fill it with enough breakdowns and changes in pace to make it sound like the track was always made for deathcore.
 From there we are treated to two remixes from this EP. Fresh from making As I Lay Dying songs sound weirder on their tenth anniversary EP Decas, dubstep DJ Big Chocolate and Dillinger Escape Plan guitarist Ben Weinman are on hand to remix Breeding Violence and This Is Exile. Wether you've been taken in by the significant rise of popularity for the electronic sub-genre this year or not, the dubstep remix of Breeding Violence actually works really well. The synthesized backdrops add a greater sense of suspense and bleakness to the song and the electronic beats carry a forceful impact with them. Ben Weinman meanwhile turns This Is Exile into deathcore Nine Inch Nails. I've never really enjoyed his remixes so much, only found them interesting and this remix is an example of this.
 Ending the EP with an acoustic guitar rendition of End of Flesh is quite a cool way to wrap things up. It makes the song sound like a traditional spanish guitar song. It's an instrumental though, which is a shame since I was really looking forward to hearing what Bozeman's clean vocals sounded like.
 While not a full-on necessity, this EP is definitely worth checking out, if for any reason, because the one new song is epic. For the most part, this EP shows a little more versatility from the kings of deathcore and helps fans know they're still going strong. Promising for their next release