Yōkai

If there is one credit that should be given to the 2010s, its that they threw the mutually combined 'heavy music' scene (that's hard rock, heavy metal and hardcore all in one tree) into an almost parody like level of uh... exploration.

Japan hyper developed its "over the top gimmicky pop metal" scene to a T with the likes of Babymetal, Iron Bunny and Band Maid, America then spat out its own industrial tinged variant with Poppy. Then the trap rappers started ripping on deathcore bands, then trap metal became a thing and those trap rappers started making black metal side projects... and then Within Destruction forced their way in with Yokai. So lets make sure I'm not mincing my own words here, I do not like this album, this music is not for me, but I also have the strangest level of respect for it, because running from slamming deathcore straight to this without even the slightest hint of hesitation is perhaps the ballsiest move in metal, like if you were to cut the bulk of 90's era Megadeth and immediately follow up Rust in Peace with Risk.

My first issue is a pretty common issue I have with modern deathcore, the production is just too damn clean. You could replace some of the guitar lines with dubstep wub wub bass drops and I'm not sure I'd even notice a difference. Its great that everything is downtuned and I certainly like that filled out low end especially with the lack of a bass guitar, but I kinda feel like a rawer guitar tone would have been necessary to actually give it any muscle. It does fit well with some of the trap elements that are introduced here but brings up what might be the most common grievance against this album, which is that the metal seems to be taking the back seat while making up the bulk of the album. Case in point, after the obligatory intro track titled Yomi (which in fairness is a digital hip hop beat with some folk japanese instrumentation laid on top) you're hit with the title track which does feature an electronic opening but quickly gives way to a core sound of double pedal drumming, chuggy guitar grooves and slam styled low guttural vocals. Not just one, but two fairly lengthy solos and gang shouted vocals follow on the tail end. This is what the bulk of the album sounds like. Sure its follow up with Harakiri which does have a break in it which features a rap verse over a swishy trap beat, but the bulk of this song follows the pattern of the first, chuggy guitar grooves, double pedal drumming and low guttural vocals with some gang shouts blended in near the end.

At its heart and core its still very much a deathcore album just given some synthy melodies that backtrack the whole thing and occasionally having an anime girl sounding voice yell out japanese words before breakdowns. Yes it has the trap sound but that sound comprises I would argue maybe 10% of the album's whole sound, like the rap bit in Harakiri is just one quick verse taking maybe 30 seconds of a three and a half minute song, I think there's maybe 4 total rap sections in the album, another that's like 15 seconds in Alone, a fairly lengthy one in Hate Me and the third in B4NGB4NG!! but when they come in the guitars and the drums stop, the only thing tying these tracks in with the rest of the album is that the synthy bits that were backtracked for the rest of the album keep going and come into the center light in the absence of the more prominent instruments. The issue is I am coming at what is essentially an experimental genre reaching deathcore album, but it sort of sidelines its core sound when these trap elements come in to try and really emphasize them and I think what it really needed to work on was blending them together. The guitars shouldn't go silent when a bass drop or rap verse, but they do and if the synthy lines didn't come pick up the slack it would sound as disjointed as say taking a Carnifex album and cutting in a few Death Grips verses.

On the one hand, this may actually be my favorite from Within Destruction, because my inner nu-metal kid loves a good rap line in a metal song, I think how they mixed the styles has potential and I'm glad they're distinguishing themselves, however its not really well structured or written with how disjointed it feels (plus some specific lyrics are kinda cringy, especially on Hate Me).