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Knights of the Abyss > Juggernaut > Reviews > GuardAwakening
Knights of the Abyss - Juggernaut

That good ol' Arizona sound - 79%

GuardAwakening, September 3rd, 2014

As the years pass by, the hatred for deathcore slowly wither away. Bands that were once despised by Suffocation fans to the very presence of the appearance of the band members' hair has now almost achieved "tr00 status" among the current league of Internet metal nerds everywhere. Hatred for deathcore almost seems like it's not even cool anymore, talking shit on it because you're a Incantation nerd who tells those kids to "listen to real music" doesn't even seem validated anymore and almost makes most of such comparable to that of a old man yelling at a cloud. Disliking a genre is one thing, I have nothing against you for disliking deathcore in the same sense that I do not enjoy shoegaze or country music. But the hate for deathcore was so immense back in these days, that well... it was just a "thing". If you were there, you'd understand.

This was never the case for me, deathcore was always one of my favorite metal genres. Being a kid on MySpace around these times, I found numerous bands. One day, Knights of the Abyss sent me a friend request after noticing I enjoyed peer bands such as Salt the Wound, Suicide Silence, Job for a Cowboy and I Declare War (ect.), I then proceeded to listen to their music. Of course listening to their music over on their page and viewing the pictures on their MySpace profile coupled with comments from users calling the band "faggots" came as no surprise. The music was what I found captivating the most, this band was part of the league of deathcore bands to a growing scene rising in Arizona and was started none-other by Job for a Cowboy.

Just to conclude this story so I can get on with the review; Job for a Cowboy pretty much morphed deathcore into a big thing. They were from Glendale, Arizona. They made a killing off their MySpace profile of only a 6 song EP and even headed out on some great tours on the back of these songs before ditching the genre altogether in favor for death metal 2 years later. But it doesn't change the fact that they made a cult following for the style of music that they played on this EP. Knights of the Abyss is one of those bands that followed in their footsteps.

First of all, I just want to say I noticed something among these deathcore bands from Arizona. They all sound almost exactly the same, they have their own sound from other bands outside their home state. I didn't quite understand it at first. The vocals and drum production/guitar tone didn't sound like Suicide Silence, Carnifex or Whitechapel. Why does the vocals of Knights of the Abyss and the tone of the guitars and drums sound so inhumanly similar to Job for a Cowboy and The Irish Front but no other bands in the genre? I mean, I admit it, the growler on this album sounds so crazily similar to Jonny Davy or that kid that did the growls in The Irish Front, I even checked the band members to see if one of the two The Irish Front vocalists were indeed a part of Knights of the Abyss at the time of the album. They weren't. I was very surprised by this. This had me stumped for some moments, until my brain woke up for a moment and wandered off to checking the production credits for this album. I then realized all these bands; Job for a Cowboy, The Irish Front and even Knights of the Abyss themselves were produced by Cory Spotts. It became clear to me then because I begun to notice how every such instrument and vocal have almost the same exact sounding filters and reverb. Vocals especially have this case when someone does any sort of growl or scream and it has its own distinct filter, you can easily sound like the same person with the same sort of distortion or filter placed on the vocals.

Suffice to say, these bands all sound "very Arizona" for that reason alone; they were all produced by Arizona producer Cory Spotts. Do I like the production of Spotts? It's not bad; it's just... different. Put up to the comparison against other such producers such as Josh Travis and his wall-of-sound style that he pulled off on Suicide Silence's The Cleansing album, which I actually prefer a little more for a deathcore release. The guitars on all his albums always have the bands play their instruments in a cave it sounds like. Drums have a fair amount of reverb while the guitar retain this cold sound and very echo-y reverb vocals sit atop all these instruments. As a result, Juggernaut very much sounds like a less technical version of Universe by The Irish Front.

Anyway, about the playing style themselves, that's about as much as I can describe. If you've heard any other Arizona deathcore bands, you've heard them all. Knights feels like a slightly more serious and less spazzy version of The Irish Front that borrows some of the blast beat style off Job for a Cowboy. Their goofiness shines on some tracks, but it's not the entire basis of the band.

One of the only complaints I could really dig-up is that the band's breakdowns almost sound too similar from song to song. By the album's seventh track ("Megabrain") it begins getting monotonous with the style they perpetuate over and over with these chug-chug moments. It's by all means not a perfect album, nor an original album but it's deathcore straight outta Arizona and following in the pathway of leadership that Job for a Cowboy did before them. By all means, not a bad album. But if you can't handle deathcore; plain and simple... stay away.