Decimate the Weak

One could be forgiven by writing off Winds of Plague as another shitty deathcore band with a gimmick, what with their criminal overuse of breakdowns, juvenile lyrics, rap/nü metal tendencies, and stupid, stupid, video for “The Impaler.” Most people wouldn’t listen past the deathcore label and that’s a shame. With Victory Records now jumping on this deathcore thing, I think we can officially call it oversaturated. Deathcore on its own volition isn’t bad, but for every Suicide Silence, there’s about 20 Carnifexes.

Winds of Plague aren’t as bad as the latest Victory signing though, but no one could tell with how much they get trashed in forums and at concerts. Not their own concerts, mind you, but when I was at the Cannibal Corpse in Tulsa someone said that their music makes them wanna puke a river and “drown those faggots in it.” This was the general consensus, but when I asked why no one had a good answer other then “faggots.”

They are probably just focusing on the negative like I’m about to do now (sorry Kyle). I said criminal overuse of breakdowns, and that’s true. I’m not a big fan of breakdowns. They almost always seem forced and are a cheap song lengthening scheme. When a band like Suicide Silence or even Hatebreed does it, it seems natural and flows well, but these guys fucking start off with breakdowns which fails to give the song a necessary momentum. Plus the term “breakdown” is just stupid to me, what naming a musical term after what happens when a car engine starts belching out smoke and flames.

Second is the lyrics, which also bleed in to the retarded rap stuff. I usually never pay attention to lyrics usually because in my line of listening it’s gonna be the same shit that Cannibal Corpse or Deicide have raped to death with their pus spewing horned cocks of Satan. These guys, though, use the word fuck like most people use vowels. And in the title track they repeat the phrase “I am sent from hell” ad naseum.

(Speaking of the title track, I wanna clarify something that has sparked something in my community. The female keyboardist does not sing on this track, it’s the dude from some band called Sworn Enemy. There wasn’t even a chick in the band when it was recorded. A dude was the keyboardist for recording. WELL, IT WAS BOTHERING ME!!!)

The opening of “Reloaded” (What the fuck is up motherfuckers!? This is Winds Of Plague and all that 2008 shit!) makes me wanna join the Cannibal Corpse fans in drowning this band in diarrhea. Almost all of “Reloaded”’s lyrics look like they were written by a twelve year old wigger. Talking like this wasn’t cool in middle school, and the timespan of trends isn’t cyclical.

And lastly, the stupid, stupid video for “The Impaler.” For some retarded reason, these guys have taken to many circle pits to the head think rap is a great visual influence. With the car and psudo-hype pits, I’m almost embarrassed I bought the album. Never mind the fact we don’t see no one else but the ego masturbating vocalist for the first minute. This is something I’d expect from American Idol or a Puff Daddy thing (or whatever the fuck he’s calling himself this week), not a metal band!

Despite the last five hundred words I don’t hate this band. Every metal genre has had a “big four” and I think Winds of Plague are part of the Big four of Deathcore (for a marketable phrase) with Despised Icon, Suicide Silence and (early) Job for a Cowboy. If we can forgive the ungodly amounts of breakdowns, the guitars have some interesting ideas and are very skillfully executed. Two minutes in “One Body Too Many” (ugh) there’s a very interesting Motorhead come Pantera like bluesy riff that caught me off guard in the good way. And when they decide to “rip it the fuck up,” they can deliver in intensity. And even though Johnny Plague (dear christ) comes off as a cunt in the video with a stage name that took no thought to create, he is a very skilled vocalist and probably the best fit for this band.

The keyboards also help ad an air of epicocity and are quite beautiful at times, which offer a strong contrast to the intensity of the other instruments. But it’s not like mixing oil and water; it’s more like mixing water and lemonade mix. And it’s also great to see a band not make such a big deal about having a GIRL (OMG!!! TEH SEXL!!!) in the band, unlike most female-fronted bands and of course Bleeding Through (who are like a watered down Winds of Plague if the water was from a sewer).

All in all I kinda had fun with this album, but I still won’t admit it in public gatherings. They and the rest of the “Big Four of Deathcore” (which I’m gonna go copyright soon) have albums coming out this summer. So here’s hoping Winds of Plague’s balls will drop and then me and the death metal community will all be able to openly shrug and begrudgingly say “Yeah, they’re pretty all right, I guess.”