Kingdom of Sorrow

So Kirk Windstein and Jamey Jasta teamed up for an album that can best be described as Hatebreed meets Crowbar (shocker!). There really is nothing special about this album, it is very generic sounding sludge with a lot of hard/metalcore tendencies. Each track is almost indistinguishable from another one another and all the lyrics share the same themes of grief and misery. Ever since Supremacy came out Jasta's vocals have been very annoying and there is no real departure from that on this record and Kirk sounds like Kirk. The best aspect of this record is Derek Kerswill's drumming with a lot of well done double bass work.

"Hear This Prayer for Her" starts out with a pretty rad southerny riff before delving into some Crowbaresque doom and then picking up again. Jamey Jasta sounds pretty decent on this part except for a few parts during the chorus where he seems to try a little too hard to sound like Kirk. Kirk later comes in and shows up Jasta before the song goes into the ending. This is one of the few standout tracks on this album, when you hear the opening riff you know what song it is which is more than I can say for the others.

Every song on this album has a very formulaic approach and there is no variation what-so-fucking-ever. Some songs have more Hatebreed-like influences (Lead into Demise) and others sound like Crowbar leftovers. The only song that really breaks out of their mold is "Free the Fallen" which features Jasta yelling "Resurrect Me!" followed by a pretty decent metalcore sounding breakdown.

My two favorites on here are "With Unspoken Words" and "Buried in Black". The latter isn't as good as the former but has a little more of a Hatebreed sound and has a lot of heavy parts for good some good headbanging and great drum work. I don't really know why I like it better than say "Lead into Demise" but I do even though it is basically the same shit as many of the other songs.

"With Unspoken Words" is pretty good. The track is very slow and doomy with some keyboard work in the background to add to the atmosphere. Kirk sings most of the song and it works way better than anything Jasta could've done. Kirk always has a lot of pain in his voice and this once again adds a lot to the atmosphere. Jasta comes in to scream a wee bit after Kirk's parts and then it basically ends. I think this is probably the most well put together song on here; its different from the usual formula present throughout the majority of the album and in my opinion shows the most effort.

Overall, if you like Hatebreed, Crowbar, or both, you'll probably find something worthwhile on this album. However, you don't need this by any means. Go buy some Crowbar if you're gonna buy anything. The best parts of this album can be found on a Crowbar release only its ten times better.