Amidst the Bloodshed

Back in 2003 there was a heavy wave of mainstream metalcore hitting the earths core. Drawing alot of attention from the hardcore universe to the metalhead universe. One would say that specific genre is poor and out played, but I Declare war is something much bigger than all of that. They offer technicality and brutality.

The biggest impression i've taken into perspective is the overall musicianship.
Breakdowns sound right on point and really add fuel to the fire while listening to some of the tracks here. In most of the songs the drumming tends to be slow and mellow but really kicks in sooner or later. The two guitarists here can play very well too. They dont do the typical "chug chug chug". You hear alot of good sweeps, then breakdowns right after.

Vocal wise, its pretty typical metalcore, but thats something that can tollerable with good musicianship and right timing. Jon Huber jumps from low gutteral type growls to Black Dahlia Murder type shreiks. Another good note about the vocals is Evan Hughes backing up Jon Huber with the duel vocals, it pretty much fits like a glove.

My problems with this was the production could have been a little more influenced rather than just rushing to make another album. I feel like they did not put much time or thought into any of this. The next problem I have are the lyrics. If you thought the infamous "Reloaded" track by Winds of Plague was bad, then have no fear because thats pretty much all this is. They imcorporate the words "fuck" and "shit" too much, it sounds really too mallcorish for me.

All in all, this isn't bad. If I Declare War had good production and better lyrics this would be a metalcore masterpeice. That being said good album.