Cleveland-based hardcore punk/metallic hardcore legends Integrity return in 2017 with a new album entitled ‘Howling, for the Nightmare Shall Consume’: their latest following the release of ‘Suicide Black Snake’ four years ago in 2013. With the band influencing everyone in crossover metal from Hatebreed and Converge to Killswitch Engage and Municipal Waste, Integrity is a band with a substantial amount of reverence.
Already within the record’s opening moments is the band throwing surprising musical elements at the listener. Overly melodic lead guitars accompanied by shouted vocals kicks things off, and the album’s first song “Fallen to Destroy” does an ample job of introducing the listener to the sort of vibes the album will bring.
“Blood Sermon” comes up next – a title that is undeniably appropriate considering the genre of music Integrity plays. Whereas the previous track was quite mid-tempo in pace, this song definitely ramps up the instrumental speed, demonstrating the thrash metal side of the band. Of course, the vocals of frontman Dwid Hellion have to keep up with the blistering velocity, and they do to satisfying levels. I feel as if this would have been more appropriate as the opening song, in order to kick things off in a more traditional metallic hardcore style.
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The album’s third song “Hymn for the Children of the Black Flame” follows in the same vein as the track before it in terms of blisteringly fast instrumentation. In addition to this, Dwid Hellion’s vocals are also capable of standing out as a prominent musical force on this track, making “Hymn for the Children of the Black Flame” one of the standout songs on the album. A surprisingly impressive guitar solo towards the end of the song sets this apart from what one would traditionally expect from hardcore music.
‘Howling…’ continues at this point with its next few songs: “I Am the Spell”, “Die With Your Boots On”, and “Serpent of the Crossroads”. The former of these three slows the tempo considerably, allowing the talents of the musicians to be appreciated more as a listener. “Die With Your Boots On” definitely brings the metal, with the most gruff vocal performance heard on the album thus far, as well as the band’s instrumental section adding more weight to their efforts. “Serpents of the Crossroads” stretches out to an overall running length of almost 7 minutes, with a combination of several musical sections which vary in terms of heaviness and musical pace.
A few songs are left to go before we begin to reach the end of ‘Howling…’, and it starts with “Unholy Salvation of Sabbatai Zevi”: a track even longer than its predecessor. It is certainly an interesting decision for a band that, at its essence plays hardcore music, to write songs of this length. It is difficult to resist the feeling that every song does feel derivative of what has come before it, but then again, it’s the unwritten rule of ‘if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.’
“7 Reece Mews” is again a surprisingly long song, which baffles me as to why Integrity has decided to group all of these almost ‘progressive hardcore’ compositions one after another in the second third of the album. This track in particular feels a bit more doomy and sludgy than the previous ones, thanks to its guitar tone and the menacing vocal style. Following “7 Reece Mews” is the last trio of songs before the album rounds itself off.
“Burning Beneath the Devil’s Cross” brings back the shorter song length with violent blasts of noisy guitar complimented by the vocals of Dwid Hellion as well as the stop-and-start drum mechanics. And to conclude, “String Up My Teeth” and “Howling, for the Nightmare Shall Consume” follow the same musical themes found throughout the the album, while expanding on them slightly to differentiate themselves from what has come before.
The album definitely feels a bit lacking in musical experimentation at times, but ‘Howling…’ definitely does not feel like a waste of time and energy. Dedicated fans of 90s hardcore are undoubtedly going to give this album their time, but there’s plenty here for people who exist outside of the crossover bracket. Fans of Black Sabbath should find something to enjoy here as well, as should followers of more contemporary bands such as Mastodon and Clutch.