Album Review: In The Act of Violence - Parasitic Populace
Reviewed by Liam True
Being described as ‘Brutal Slamming Deathcore’ by the bands label, my expectations for Parasitic Populace were a bit low to be totally honest. I was walking in expecting a wall of noise, unintelligible toilet bowl vocals and the worst snare drum humanly possible recorded through a child's toy microphone. But as soon as Ctrl Alt Delete’s dial up introduction stops, you’re greeted by vocalist Jamie Crews disgusting vocal ability where his range is that of a demon from the depths of hell to a goblin brewing potions in a forest.
His vocal ability accompanied by the rest of the band blasting away at their respective instruments have blown my mind. While they are a deathcore band and do come under the slam category on a few songs, Sticks & Stones and Populace both being the main contenders for that title, the melodies from guitarist Zach Leggott backed by the bass of Conrad Thompson work hand in hand to create a mixture of an album. It’s brutal, unforgiving and volatile, but had some great riffs and superb drumming from Kenny Coull from his simple 4/4 beats on Hell$pent to his furious blast beat assault on Glasshouse Suburbia.
From the moment the band play the first note to the last note on Worldwide Vendetta it’s a blistering charge on your senses with hardly anything wrong from the musician side of things, apart from the odd song or two where the snare does turn into a dustbin lid, but you can overlook that in favour of the other songs where it’s perfectly balanced. Devils Advocate uses an almost techno sounding intro before being thrown back into the cataclysmic chugs and double bass pounding where Coull’s footwork on this song in particular is one of the fastest double bass sections I've heard, and slotted in-between his complex drumming on the song we’re led away by more techno noises to then again get crushed by the wall of death in your head.
While it does get repetitive when you reach Parasitic, it’s easily overlooked as the intense instrumentals combined with the violent vocals provide some of the brutal songs so far of 2023. It’s not the best deathcore album of the year so far but I can bet you that it’ll be in the top 5 on mine for sure.
Killer!