All Shall Perish "Hate. Malice. Revenge" (Nuclear Blast)
By Kenny Irwin
Thursday. May 26, 2:06 AM
Tough ass death/grind/hardcore.

Metal + hardcore = metalcore, right? But what if a band has a tough guy style, death metal sound, and some thrash and grindcore thrown in too? Is it too much to handle? Yes it is, but when done well, a band like All Shall Perish comes out with a crushingly heavy debut release such as Hate. Malice. Revenge that will prepare you for whatever they throw at you. No, seriously, I hear they throw raw meat at people from the stage. I’m kidding, this ain’t Blackie Lawless and W.A.S.P.

Although they seem to be a new band on the rise, All Shall Perish have been around since ’02 and have put in some time playing with such great acts as As I Lay Dying, Six Feet Under, Bleeding Through, and Dying Fetus. Putting out their own three song demo, Japanese label Amputated Vein (gotta love the Japanese!) heard something special in these relatively young Bay Area (Oakland) boys and decided to release the full length in August of 2003. Nuclear Blast caught on, signed them in December of ’04, and have just re-released Hate. Malice. Revenge.

I must admit that, when I first listened to this album, I heard all of those cliché stereotypical labels and wanted to just quickly pass them off as another okay metalcore band. But the more I listened to it, the more I found myself rocking out and banging my head to the sick riffs and breakdowns. The production here is really good and may make them sound a bit better than what they’re actually able to play live, but I am not gonna hate. The tightness that the band displays is undeniable and shows you that they have some talent in the metal field. Although a lot of the songs do display a lot of basic Hatebreed chugga style riffs, guitarists Beniko Orum and Caysen Russo do a lot more than just that. Both guitarists also display their technical sound as well, but I would say that it’s more of a death (maybe Florida death) vibe to them than a high-pitched Swedish dual guitar sound. This is especially heard in the opening track “Deconstruction,” which starts off with singer Craig Betit growling louder and louder, sounding like a monster clearing his throat. I would say this is one of my main concerns with All Shall Perish: sometimes Craig sounds as if he is screaming out of pain or yelling into the crazy crowd (which I like), but most of the time he has that creepy bad B movie type low, deep death growl which is kinda lame. If it brought something else to the table, I would understand… but I think that it just sounds lame. This is apparent on tracks “Our Own Grave” and “Never Ending War,” which to me are good songs that are just sorta ruined with his gargling.

The double bass, though, is disgusting and drummer Matt Kuykendall should be proud of what he did on this album. I think drummers are so huge in these types of bands, and Matt is another drummer who shows you just how tight a drummer can be with his fast snare fills, double bass, and overpowering crash which is just thrashed throughout the album. It must make his right hand numb after a while – well maybe his left if he’s a lefty? Bassist Mike Tiner has got to be given credit here too to keep up with these guitarists. Other than the typical breakdown parts – during which he probably just wants to throw his bass at the crowd – when they are on, they are on and going full speed ahead a lot like The Black Dahlia Murder (“The Spreading Disease”). The song with the most overall crushing appeal to me and that has the best the band offers all around, though, is “Laid To Rest,” which I just see as an amazing song live with people going insane!

So go get the new album from All Shall Perish, beautifully named Hate. Malice. Revenge if you’re big into the death metal/tough guy/grind/hardcore sound. Also go see ‘em live as they are now on tour with NYC hardcore legends Agnostic Front. Oh, and this summer they will be on tour with Hate Eternal, Krisiun, Incantation, and Into Eternity (fucking amazing band from Canada eh!).
www.allshallperish.com
www.nuclearblastusa.com

Kenny Irwin

Got something constructive to say? By all means, rant away. Gonna blab about something unrelated and/or talk shit? Don't expect your comment to stick around.