While there are plenty of bands who are happy to identify a core sound and stick to it, the most interesting are surely those acts who are unafraid to take risks and evolve with each release. This is certainly the case with Knoxville-based metallers Whitechapel, who have been steadily expanding their sound ever since they first emerged on the scene with 2007’s blistering The Somatic Defilement. Now eight albums into their career and following on from the haunting exploration of childhood trauma found on 2019’s The Valley, the band have reached a new peak with Kin. Described by frontman Phil Bozeman as: “a fictional representation of a non-fictional story.” Kin is clearly deeply personal in its concept. Phil goes on to explain: “I’m coming from a ‘what if’ standpoint. I’m also representing it in a way that conveys a more deep and dark frame of mind. This is all about what I could’ve been, had I decided to take the dark road. For the sake of storytelling, there are supernatural elements in play here as well.” Such personal investment in an album almost inevitably leads to startling music, and this is the case with Kin, arguably one of the best metal albums of 2021.
Building on the wide palette of The Valley, Kin opens with the acoustic-led I Will Find You, a track that cleverly provides a direct sonic continuation of Valley-closer Doom Woods. Following that short, beautifully executed intro, the band suddenly emerge to shatter the mood, all blast beats and guttural vocals. It’s an epic opening track, deftly juxtaposing pastoral beauty with ferocious metallic waves that threaten to submerge the listener at any moment. More immediate is the unhinged melee of (lead single) Lost Boy, which offers little quarter to the unwary. Searing yet dynamic, it showcases the band’s immense musical proficiency and while a clean passage emerges at the track’s heart, it serves only emphasise the track’s thunderous climax. Opening with creeping bass, A Bloodsoaked Symphony is a brutally rhythmic battering that sees Gabe and drummer Alex advancing on the hapless listener as Phil employs his voice rather more as a percussive device. Yet, while the track may deal in mechanistic horror, the swirling ambience of Alex Wade and Ben Savage’s guitars serve to ensure that there’s more than mere brutality to keep the listener hooked. In contrast, the dusty riffs of Anticure give way to clean vocals and a track that, at least initially, recalls the haunting tones of A Perfect Circle. However, don’t get too comfortable, for the first half concludes with the sludgy horror of The Ones That Made Us. Hauling itself out of a wall of noise and scraping strings, the track feels like a cross between death metal and Silent Hill, and it stands as one of the album’s most unhinged tracks.
Providing a moment’s respite, the gorgeous History Is Silent once again nods towards the more ethereal aspects of A Perfect Circle and, while the track eventually heads down darker paths, it remains atmospheric even at its heaviest. No such serenity is to be found on the To The Wolves and, although a brief moment of post-rock calm may emerge in the music, the vocals are never anything less than full-tilt in their delivery. It gives way to the slower strains of Orphan – a largely clean-sung track that is as close as the band have ever come to mainstream rock. The band then take things a step further, the brief acoustic segue of Without You a moment of pastoral beauty that entirely blindsides the listener as to the churning maelstrom of djentish death metal that is Without Us. Nevertheless, despite the ridiculously weighty riffs, a clean verse pitches the track closer to prog rockers Vola than to your typical death metal fare. The album climaxes with Kin, a slow-burning progressive piece that sees the band throw it all into the mix – acoustic guitars, spacey effects, clean vocals, airy piano and a soaring, Floyd-esque solo. A disarmingly contemplative finale to an album that sees Whitechapel continue to explore the limits of their sound, it is a fitting conclusion not only to Kin, but to the wide-ranging journey begun with The Valley.
Kin, in many ways, is the most logical step that Whitechapel could have taken, having dipped their toes into more progressive waters with The Valley. An emotionally cathartic, musically powerful journey, it expands on the progressive excursions of its predecessor, offering a more coherent set of songs in the process. While there are those who will undoubtedly lament the fact that Whitechapel no longer simply bludgeon the listener into submission, those who like to grow alongside a band will find much to admire here, for this is a simply an excellent album no matter what genre label you care to affix. 9.5/10
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