Proprioception

Nowadays, metalheads don't seem to spend nearly as much time hating on deathcore. When I was first seriously getting into metal about a decade ago, it was the polarizing, hot button debate. If you weren't an active fan of the genre, you were likely to sneer at its very mention. The worst part? it was omnipresent. All the big metal labels seemed to be pushing it hard and new bands were being formed every ten minutes. I'm not exactly sure what happened, but it just kind of...went away. Chalk it up to a composite of factors: bands like The Faceless, BTBAM, The Contortionist and whatnot started going in proggier directions, sending the genre into splinters, for one. Djent started taking over, too, which only fueled the prog fire, and death metal influence slowly starting bleeding out of deathcore bands. Also, it seems like anybody who was just looking for massive thug breakdowns jumped ship to Nails et al. a long time ago. Put it all together and deathcore's plateau and slow decline in popularity seemed inevitable given its sudden explosion.

I realized a while ago I don't exactly spend that much time reviewing deathcore even though I tend to indirectly mention it a lot in reviews. And Hell Followed With seems as good of a place to start as any, because everything about Proprioception is a product of its time. This is a deathcore album straight outta 2010, let me tell you that much. I'm confident I would have been able to guess that accurately had I gone into this completely blind. Anybody with a basic working knowledge of what deathcore is could, really. This album sounds typical of the genre, but at the same time you can still hear the band struggling to find a new direction (much like deathcore was in 2010). There are djenty rhythms interspersed throughout, but the genre wasn't quite at full force yet so the off-timed chugging hangs there like a mutated appendage of sorts. Unable to fully detach itself from the sound typified by bands like Carnifex and Job For a Cowboy, Proprioception falls back on the usual amalgamation of Black Dahlia Murder riffs interspersed with way too many breakdowns that go on for way too long. When they're playing the faster melodeathcore stuff it's not bad at all, I like Nocturnal and all, but the patchwork songwriting that was all-too-common in C-grade deathcore has unfortunately infected this album in spades. The most egregious example of this is on "In Vastness I Transfigure". The song is generally a slower, more straightforward ballad-type deal, so it basically sounds like a giant breakdown right off the bat, but for the first couple of minutes it's not done poorly or anything. Then, at just a bit past the 2:20 mark, they drop an even slower chuggy thing with almost no introduction. It doesn't matter that the entire song was written to be slow and crushing from the get-go and thus writing another breakdown slower and with a different timing completely kills all the momentum because I guess every fucking deathcore song has to have a big ass breakdown at the end.

This is a somewhat curious listening piece, because it came at a transition point in its genre. The genre was just about to mature and transform completely, still going from the momentum of its inception but losing steam. In hindsight, Proprioception looks like an old and withered caterpillar right before it blossoms into a butterfly. The band makes cautious, insecure attempts to branch out on this album--most notably in the more melodic leads on "One of the Swarm" and the lighter closing track. The former doesn't work too bad, but the latter just seems like a feeble attempt to show that And Hell Followed With could, like, totally make normal music if they wanted to, man. The smartest decision these guys had was keeping their songs relatively short and concise, so no bad ideas ever get run into the ground, but overall Proprioception is very safe and does little to stray away from the familiar territory. Vocals are probably more on the shouty hardcore side of things than they are growly death metal, especially when he sings choppy rhythms during the breakdowns. You run-of-the-mill deathcore high is used as well. It's not necessarily generic, but everything about it is typical to its genre, if that makes sense. This comes at a crossroads between oldschool and new-school deathcore, but has pretty much no replay value outside of being that. And Hell Followed With probably would have slowly withered like about 90% of deathcore bands that popped up in their time, but fortunately for them Earache has particularly bad taste in this stuff. The only time a deathcore band like this possibly could have been signed to a big label was in the mid-00s, and it doesn't seem like much of a surprise that the band split up not long after this album.

The members know their way around the instruments--the rhythm section (while unfortunately the victim of awful song structuring) is well-done in its own right. This is obviously professionally done and all of that, but that shouldn't dictate whether or not a piece of music is worth your time in the slightest. Personally speaking, I liked some of the Black Dahlia Murder riffs, too, so there are some things I personally enjoy and can recommend about this, but it's hard to do so since everything is surrounded by so many bad breakdowns. If you're really itching to hear deathcore's last gasps before it moved on to proggy and pretentious territory, give Proprioception a listen, but outside of that historical value this has little to offer that you can't find in better bands.

I first bought this album back when it came out after hearing the track Dead World Reclamation on a music channel. I was pretty floored by the sound back in the day, and this was back when I was still discovering what I was into. I started listening to it every day, multiple times a day, paying very close attention to the details of every song.

The guitars on this album are quite melodic actually with some very interesting riffs that will keep the listener entertained the whole time. The riffs on the album are detuned with a lot of brutality with melody mixed in. There are lighter flowery solo type riffs that are quite enjoyable and they're sure to occasionally get stuck in your head. The dual guitars compliment each other, and very accurately follow the drumming. The biggest problem with the guitars is that they tend to get very monotonous after a while, and the band actually repeats riffs at times and it creates a feeling that you've heard all of this before after the first few tracks. This is especially true of the breakdowns that are present on the album, they all sound very much the same. The bass seems almost as if it isn't there, it isn't audible, there are no places where it shines. It does bring the heaviness to the riffs with the low tuned guitars, but it still is practically not present.

The drumming is very great with this album, the drummer creates a lot of very interesting patterns, and I honestly would say that it is the highlight of this album. The vocals are the next biggest element with high pitched black metal shrieks that go very well with the deep and heavy riffs and pounding drums. His gutturals and pig squeals are very well performed as well. What is also present are hardcore shouts that add another great element of interest to this album. Reading the lyrics while listening to this album adds another aspect to the whole album that makes it very enjoyable. There are also samples that add to the entirety of the album and bring it together in a very tasteful manner.

Despite this albums downside with how it tends to sound very similar track per track with elements being repeated, it is a very enjoyable listen. It should also be noted that this album is a significant improvement over their previous album. If the band had stayed together I'm sure a succeeding album would have also yielded more improvements.

If there is a single phrase that could properly sum up the short-lived Michigan based novelty that was And Hell Followed With, it would be "a big pile of stuff". As vague and unclear as that analogy may be, it is a revealing character of the schizophrenic approach that this mid-west outfit takes to deathcore. It is heavily informed by the sort of mixing and splicing of sub-genres that was spearheaded by the likes of Into Eternity and several others, but translates it into a medium that manages, strangely enough, to be both highly mechanical in character and yet bordering on complete randomness structurally. In a nutshell, these guys manage to buck the trend of many modern extreme bands by not coming off as monotonous, yet somehow manage to be equally as lackluster in their own unique way.

In all fairness, this band's cartoonish sophomore effort Proprioception is not without a few moments of flair and intrigue, though they often come in amid a stilted mess of studio effects and jumbled sectional jumps. The vocalist has a fairly competent grasp of how to mix up various extreme vocalizations from pig squeals and belch-like barks to a high pitched wail that is often likened to The Black Dahlia Murder's front man. Occasionally there are also hints of hardcore-infused shouts that wouldn't be out of place on a Discharge album to boot. In similar fashion, the drummer is a veritable surgeon of militant precision that manages some of the most intensely fast beats imaginable, taking on the quality of a drum machine while lacking the impersonal character of sound that usually goes with it.

Sadly, while the extremities of this band are in reasonably good order, the middle of this thing just falls out from the get go and never really recovers. Most of the fault for this lay in the songwriting, which meanders in an aimless fashion, hitting just about every mark from grooving djent-sounding low end riffs and stale, highly formulaic tremolo riff work sounding like a reject from a Cryptopsy session. There are even a few places where a random melodeath section with a high degree of sloppy post-rock elements comes and goes with little rhyme or reason. The guitar work, while competent, is highly banal and largely goes through the motions with little sign of feeling or ingenuity, whereas the bass may as well not be there given its lack of prominence and the already deep tone of the guitars.

For all the unique elements that would normally make a band like this stand out, there are a number of prominent bands that have done it before and way better. The quirky, otherworldly aesthetic that was being reach for with all the processed effects that went into this album's post-production has been explored with far more technical flair by Rings Of Saturn, the hyper-speed melodeath sections can be explored in far better quality on a middle era release of The Crown or The Black Dahlia Murder, and the tuned-down bass-like grooves can be heard in all their uninhibited glory on just about anything put out by Meshuggah after Chaosphere. It's highly forgettable, lacks any sense of staying power, and will probably do little for even rabid fans of metalcore and deathcore.

Okay, I understand why people don't like AHFW. The reason they don't like them is because vocalist Nick Holland shocks the shit out of everyone with his ear-shattering high-pitched screams. Black Dahlia Murder fans will be all over this band.

At first I was also shocked by Holland's unconventional style, but I let it grow on me, and in going deeper into the album I found some killer tracks, but before that, what of the instruments?

The only thing that didn't strike me as outstanding was the bass. He didn't do anything wrong, but he didn't do anything extraordinary like Nick from Cephalic Carnage. The two guitarists, however, harmonize like I've never seen before, combining brutal riffs that lean closer to death metal than anything else, also with the added twist of awe-inspiring melodies that become more and more powerful as the album progresses. Tracks that hold the best guitar riffs would be "One of the Swarm" and "Those Now Sleep Forever".

The drummer is your standard death metal beast, pounding his double bass as always, but successfully compliments the guitars in his own fascinating manner.

Going back to the vocal section, one cool thing about this album is that both death metal and hardcore fans will be satisfied with the use of brutal death metal vocals (highs and lows) as well as a hardcore scream that you'll hear throughout the album, which surprisingly work well despite the fact that many vocalists in the 'hardcore' spectrum usually fail to impress the metal community. Breakdowns on this album are very well done and very well placed, which is something that cant be said about 90% of the bands in the deathcore genre. A good example of this is the breakdown in "A Welcome Displeasure".

Big tracks on this album would be "A Welcome Displeasure", "Those Now Sleep Forever", "Deadworld Reclaimation", "One Of The Swarm", and the instrumental "Perpetual Abyssma".

One added note to this review is a commentary on the lyrics. Unlike many extreme bands, AHFW writes lyrics that are very emotional and still gory and violent in many respects, but veer away from the Cannibal Corpse-inspired groups that discourage death metal-based acts from writing deep and meaningful lyrics like you may see in the greats like Dismember, Death, and in later years, Opeth (before they sold out).

All in all, this album is but a mere example of what the new wave of core-based metal bands would sound like at peak performance. This is why death metallers and hardcore fans alike should both give this album a shot, for the complimentary mixing of the two styles, along with a unique twist, gives the album its own unique flavor.

As soon as I saw the album cover to “Proprioception”, I knew I wasn't going to care for the album. As expected, the sounds of “breakdowns” and triple-tiered Death vocals, from pig-squealing to screeching, greeted my ears. Now, Lord knows I don't care that much for Deathcore at its best, but this?

There's just not much melody or music to satisfy my ears here at all. It's fast, aggressive, full of frenzied drumming (THAT guy has his stuff down, at least), and a whole lot of anger, but I can't grab anything here to hold on to.

Now, don't get mad at me because I just don't like the genre. I've recently listened to a number of other deathcore bands, and they had something that this group just doesn't. ...AND HELL FOLLOWED WITH just fails to create anything memorable, stirring, catchy, moving, etc. And if they can't do that, why am I listening to this “music”? As a good friend of mine quoted upon listening to a couple of songs “throwing a wolverine in a rusty tumble dryer would produce something more musical.” Frankly, I'm inclined to agree with him.

The all-to-frequent breakdowns are only saved by the persistently talented drumming and whom I'm sure is a talented vocalist for the genre. Otherwise, the ridiculous redundancy and lack of any originality or really talent (is that it?, I think so!) behind the guitars sends this album to the grave. Quoted mediocre by many who like the genre, “Proprioception” is completely and utterly inaccessible to anyone else. Better off skipping this one. Even if you're a fan of Deathcore, pick up something else instead. Even a random grab will probably get you something more enjoyable.

Originally written for www.metal-observer.com

Review originally published at http://www.teethofthedivine.com by Erik Thomas

Apparently Earache was so impressed with the record breaking sales of Oceano’s Depths last year, and unable to wait for the bands follow up, Contagion, the label has gone and signed Detroit’s And Hell Followed With ― an almost identical act to Oceano.

So now most of you have left, and those who remain are deathcore fans who appreciated Oceano’s heavier than hell release, the above statement is not meant as detrimental, but more of a complement. Basically, take the heft and brutality of Oceano’s Depths, particularly the title track, add some melodic moments and solos and you have Proprioception.

With a very stout Josh Wichman (Within the Ruins) production, Proprioception delivers an album that meets all the tenets of elite deathcore in spades. That means it’s more death metal than hardcore, resulting in one of the genre’s most impressive efforts ― immediately raising the band’s level of dominance to that of Whitechapel, I Declare War and, of course, Oceano.

After the requisite intro “Mara”, “This Night Is The Coroner’s” shows the band’s take on deathcore with a melodic solo surfacing amid a expectedly rumbling, gang chant filled breakdown. But the following two tracks “Deadworld Reclamation”, and “”In Vastness, I Transfigure” focus on the bands more urgent, death metal chops, while still managing to inject some very cool solo work. And I don’t mean noodly, shredding solos, but darkly evocative, eerie solo work that gives And Hell Followed With a more menacing feel than many of their peers. Of course, the heart and soul of the music are blast beats and breakdowns ― the band don’t disappoint there. With the likes of “Rotting Procession”, the lumbering “Dismantle”, “One of the Swarm” and my personal favorite, “A Welcome Displeasure”, all show a firm, confident grasp of the maligned genre, even if some of the tracks seem to blend at the album’s later stages. Also, the closing track, “Perpetual Abyssma”, is a pure instrumental “look, we can play introspective stuff” -cliché. As for the special edition’s bonus track, “The Greatest Deception”, I question its importance in the grand scheme of things.

It’s fitting the album is called Proprioception (a sort of self-awareness or self-perception) as And Hell Followed With make no qualms or excuses for their chosen style. Instead, they go after it with a rabid precision and tenacity that should see them rise to the top of the deathcore-heap ― be that as it may.