ABACABB BREATHES LIFE INTO DEATHCORE.Byline: VAUGHN FORTIER-SHULTZ, GN BY VAUGHN FORTIER-SHULTZ GENERATION NEXT These days, the world of deathcore is bogged down by a wave of awful poser bands trying to pass off their crappy crap·py adj. crap·pi·er, crap·pi·est Vulgar Slang 1. Inferior; worthless. 2. Miserable; poorly. 3. Mean; contemptible. playing, full of lame breakdowns and off-kilter blastbeats, as legit le·git adj. Slang Legitimate. music. Only now and then do we get great deathcore (Last year's albums by Bring Me The Horizon and Attila come to mid) amidst torrents of bad. Then, in the first quarter of 2009, we got the first true deathcore gem of the year; ABACABB's long-awaited debut album, Survivalist sur·viv·al·ist n. One who has personal or group survival as a primary goal in the face of difficulty, opposition, and especially the threat of natural catastrophe, nuclear war, or societal collapse. Noun 1. . Yeah, we all know that deathcore is nerdy; from Acacia Strain's Arrested Development inspired song titles to Himsa's encyclopedic en·cy·clo·pe·dic adj. 1. Of, relating to, or characteristic of an encyclopedia. 2. Embracing many subjects; comprehensive: "an ignorance almost as encyclopedic as his erudition" knowledge of mythology, the whole spectrum of deathcore reeks of geek A technically oriented person. It has typically implied a "nerdy" or "weird" personality, someone with limited social skills who likes to tinker with scientific or high-tech projects. The origin of the term dates back to the late 1800s. . That's why it should come as no surprise that ABACABB is named for a cheat code In a video game, a cheat code is a character combination that is entered to change the game's behavior. It may move the game to the next level or cause some other action to take place. See Easter Egg. in the original Mortal Kombat. After two excellent demos released in 2006, we finally get the first full-length album by ABACABB, courtesy of Sumerian Records. A fan of the band's material, I was eager to listen to this album, and I knew what to expect: murderous death metal with some deathcore/deathgrind influences. I got more than I expected. The intro song was just rehashed from one of their earlier demos, and is just a diary-style monologue. It doesn't really have much to do with the album's content, but it serves as a dark, ambient sort of prelude to the crushing first song, "Infection." This song gives us a pretty good idea of what ABACABB sounds like, with a nice Carcass riff and plenty of Botch squealies. The band shows off their technical mastery in the song "Addiction," and their brutality in "Survivalist." I was astonished a·ston·ish tr.v. as·ton·ished, as·ton·ish·ing, as·ton·ish·es To fill with sudden wonder or amazement. See Synonyms at surprise. by the way each song flows into the next. I had heard that this was a concept album, but when I didn't even notice the transition from "Rejection" to "Isolation," I knew that they were far more talented than in the demo days of 2006. This is a good album. If you like All Shall Perish or Anything Left, you really need to hit this CD up. It's a true masterpiece, breathing new life into deathcore and bringing down the hammer on all those poser bands you hate. Vaughn Fortier-Shultz is a freshman at Academy for Technology and the Classics. You can reach him at moosemanxl@gmail.com. |
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