I never expect too much from a deathcore album. Yes, there is great deathcore bands out there, even though they aren't many, but they exist. On the contrary, there is a lot of average to terrible stuff within this subgenre. Don't get me wrong, every subgenre has awful bands, it's just that deathcore and metalcore bands are more likely to be bad. It's not only because of the breakdowns, but often because of the lack of creativity when it comes to time changes, riffs and especially lyrics.
I don't feel that Upon A Burning Body's new album "The World Is My Enemy Now" complies either with the good or the bad side of deathcore. It lays somewhere inbetween and contains basically everything from "Please stop that shit" to "Now that's a hell of a song!".
The album starts with two killer tracks: "Red Razor Wrists" and "Scars" are songs with decent riffs, groove and almost catchy refrains - neck-breaking and addictive at the same time. After the openers, the song quality unfortunately drops to an average, sometimes even to a relatively low level. Until the interlude "A Toda Madrč ň un Desmadrč", nothing happens to catch my attention and the music passes the listener by without enchanting or much less challenging him. The better songs can be found at the end of the album.
The vocals are ok, but most of the time they are at the same pitch. Although they somehow reminded me of Henrik Englund's (Scarpoint, Amaranthe, since 2013) powerful and angry gutturals, singer Danny Leal will never be able to hold a candle to him. Some foreseeable and in my opinion pretty badly written lyrics which describe personal problems and inner fights don't make anything better. Of course not. They're annoying the crap out of me. There are better topics to sing about.
And still - Upon A Burning Body at least try to make their music interesting. The already mentioned interlude "A Toda Madrč ň un Desmadrč" is a beautiful acoustic instrumental that surprises with a spanish touch breaking the monotony of the previous few songs. Right after this track, "Judgement" kicks in and this song is with some clean vocals and a strong breakdown the stand-out piece of the record in my opinion. The last songs sound very modern and young metalcore fans will definitely enjoy them.
Overall, "The World Is My Enemy Now" is a record with strengths, but also lots of weaknesses. Fans of the band will certainly love it, that for sure. I have to admit that I quite enjoy some of the songs. Still, there is the big lean period in the middle of the album and the instrumentals become boring after some passes.
I can imagine that fans of Suicide Silence, Of Mice And Men or Betraying The Martyrs could like "The World Is My Enemy Now", though. For everyone else: Don't waste your time. There is better deathcore to listen to. The good news: There is also worse...
