We have a new Whitechapel record; surely deathcore fans everywhere are losing their collective minds, right? Well, 2021’s Kin is, different.
Whitechapel, were part of the “old guard” of deathcore, along with Suicide Silence, Carnifex, All Shall Perish, Oceano, and a handful of others. They were among the bands that brought the tropes of the genre to light and shaped what we call deathcore today. Sure, the genre has progressed since then, with newer bands borrowing and blending influences from other genres ranging from rap and EDM to black and symphonic metal. However, when a band like Whitechapel comes up in conversation, there is a sense of nostalgic appeal, even accounting for their gradual shift in direction and inclusion of different songwriting motifs. Their most recent record The Valley leaned heavily into more emotionally weighty themes, with longer melodic passages, and clean vocals, the last of which is still relatively fresh for deathcore. The Valley was met with critical and consumer acclaim and was generally accepted to be a winner.
Kin is a lot more WhiteValley, except with diminishing returns.
The Knoxville sextet open this offering with “I Will Find You”, with a folk-metal acoustic intro, and everyone’s already nodding along to “Yup, this is more of The Valley”, and that’s what we get with the opening track, except with diluted riffs more focused on a simplistic groove and lead overlays sprinkled through. Following this, lead single “Lost Boy” kicks us in the face with possibly the ONLY old-school Whitechapel riff bringing back pleasant memories of their name-making record The Somatic Defilement and A New Era of Corruption, tremolo-picked guitar goodness, with aggressive double bass and even hints of blast beats and is easily the strongest riff on the record. The rest of the track eventually leads back into the valley with a clean chorus and does feature among the best layers on the record.
The second single “A Bloodsoaked Symphony” trades razorblades for the hammer and stomps its way through and is more NeoChapel and is enjoyable for what it is. It is at this point that Kin grinds to a screeching halt, and will never fully recover its tempo. It’s mostly downhill from here with a smattering of crests. “Anticure” comes off as Whitechapel writing a Staind song, and it pains me to even write that down.
Tracks like “The Ones That Made Us” and “To the Wolves” toy with interesting themes, but quickly devolve into the same easy-chug-with-lead-overlay formula, and after four records of this, the effort is trite and loses charm exceedingly quickly. “The Ones That Made Us” open with a heavy-handed chug that would even make listeners think of Meshuggah, and would be an interesting idea to flesh out further, but Whitechapel insists on overusing their hardcore-infused chug verses. Even though the Mesh-chug is brought back at the bridge of the track, now laced with heavy delay-reverb infused ambiance, it’s too little too late! “To The Wolves” like the intro to “Lost Boy” come out with barbed wire through the throat intensity, and can this be a fast-paced track? Nope, GrooveChapel rears its ugly head yet again emergency braking a track that promised us a swift kick on a dreary Monday morning. Even with these quibbles, “To The Wolves” remains among the heaviest tracks on Kin.
“Orphan” is Whitechapel trading Staind for All That Remains, and that’s all that will be said about it. Moving on. “Without You” is an acoustic interlude that plays with interesting hammer-ons and pull-offs making me think of bands like Blind Guardian and even something folk-Viking themed and would be a perfect campfire track. An interesting idea that warranted the extension. “Without You” also serves as a glorified introduction to “Without Us” which rehashes “A Bloodsoaked Symphony”’s ChugChapel songwriting, this time with, you guessed it, a melodic overlay. The only interesting part of “Without Us” is a callback to the pull-off section, this time with distortion, which is frankly a great idea which more bands should pursue. With an entirely mediocre middle section of the record, it is painfully clear that Kin is a one-trick pony. An album that wants to take itself overly seriously with a “look how emotional we are, and feelings are the new breakdowns”. It worked for The Valley, because that record chose the path of violent sadness and aggressive regret. An outwardly projecting record. Kin, on the other hand, is a more introspective record that comes across as mopey rather than insightful. And the album closer and album namesake “Kin” is a posterchild to illustrate this weak execution of “emotional” songwriting.
I wish more can be said about the guitar work on Kin, the acoustic sections are interesting, yet not pursued, the “deathcore”y sections wave at you and vanish if you sneeze more than twice, and all you’re left with is the same tired groove and different flavors of a melody weaving in and out. A complaint heard on the groove-heavy Mark of the Blade was “How can a band with THREE guitarists come up with such bland songwriting” rings through, even more so on Kin. The solos, when present, have a distinct country-Southern rock/metal feel to it, which harkens to their Tennessee roots, and is fresh, but loses shine when preceded and proceeded by more mediocre verse and chorus arrangements. This is also drummer Alex Rudinger’s first record as an official drummer, and he tries his best to lend weight and intensity to the tracks, but there’s only so much to be done.
Obviously, no review of anything Whitechapel can be complete without talking about vocalist Phil Bozeman, and Kin is simultaneously a victory and defeat for this genre titan. Once hailed as one of the most guttural deathcore vocalists (and metal vocalists overall) in the game, it is clear that the younger generation of vocalists are quickly superseding him. His foray into clean vocals paid gigantic dividends on The Valley and he decided to explore new clean vocal textures and sing at different registers. Nobody can take away from the fact that Bozeman is belting his heart out throughout the record, with both grits and cleans. So much so those earlier comparisons to Staind’s Aaron Lewis and All That Remain’s Phil Labonte are markers of high praise. However, his lyrical content reads as too on-the-nose especially compared to more allegorical writing on tracks like “When a Demon Defiles a Witch” and “Hickory Creek” which served as emotional highlights on The Valley. He continues to have among the best enunciation in the scene, even with reaching cavernous depths with his growls and boasts great clarity of cadence and delivery during the clean sections. This level of high praise also highlights how severely underwhelming and immature his lyrics read on this record. The trope of writing about his family trauma worked, but it’s time to move onto other themes to draw from while writing lyrics, Phil!
Kin is a bland record that takes itself too seriously and does not take the time to flesh out its more interesting elements; instead of relying on gimmicks and previous laurels. Sadly, this could be the record that sinks a genre giant, especially with newer, more energetic bands pushing the boundaries of musicianship and songwriting.