I Declare War

Some deathcore bands have breakdowns, other ones will have breakdowns to space out the other breakdowns, then there are bands like I Declare War. While this statement does lean a bit on the hyperbole, it's pretty difficult to deny that what comprises the self-titled 2011 descent into minimalist drudgery is rivaled by few in the department of space-occupying idea fragments passed off as sections. Picture the most utterly mechanical aspects of latter day Whitechapel, multiply them by a factor of about 5, add in a newly recruited vocalist with very little charisma and a one-dimensional approach to complement largely one-dimensional music, and what is heard is something that couldn't be more aptly depicted visually then how it is here, with a guy hanging himself.

Attempting to disseminate the songwriting process here is largely an exercise in cliche, mixed with some really bad attempts at variation that simply replace one type of monotony with one or two others. The most tepidly obvious example of this is "The Dot", a bad attempt at meshing cosmology and philosophy with a style best fit for those who have little interest in the former or most of the latter, which also attempts to redress the horridly banal abundance of slow chugging with annoying pinch harmonics that would even make Robby Flynn wince in pain. Occasionally a guitar solo is attempted as well, with similarly boring and contrived results as what Job For A Cowboy would attempt when trying to sound more like a traditional death metal band, though at least this album makes no attempts to wrap itself in old school garbs and is honest about its intent.

Saving graces on this album are pretty much non-existent, as are any real moments of intrigue or climax. One thing that is arguably the band's strong suit is the drum work, which while bound to a very predictable formula, does occasionally show signs of life during faster sections and doesn't shy away from doing some fancy fills when called for. However, the heavily mechanical guitar work and virtually non-existent bass (buried in the mix and always following the guitars) makes for a truly boring template that all the Flo Mounier worship in the world couldn't possibly save. Newly recruited vocalist Jamie Hanks only further aggravates this contrived tendency in the format by sticking to a uniform grunt scream that has a pronounced bottom end, but no sense of growth or dynamics and just coasts in a straight line.

While I've never been the biggest fan of deathcore as a whole, there have been some exemplary acts within the style that have caused me to give the style a bit more consideration. This album, by contrast, exudes every single annoying aspect of the style from a sheer lack of depth to a willful refusal to develop upon a very rudimentary/skeleton approach. It actually reminds a bit of someone who spends their entire life being pissed off about everything and, as a result, ends up with nobody caring because any sense of effect is lost when something truly revolting occurs. Picture person 1 saying "I saw a cat the other day, and it pissed me off. Then my shoelaces came untied, and that pissed me off even more! Hey, did you hear that we're about to start an undeclared war with Libya? That pisses me off most of all!!!" To which, person 2 simply shrugs and walks away. Thus concludes the story of I Declare War.