Impending Doom - There Will Be Violence

Artist: Impending Doom
Album: There Will Be Violence
Release Date: 7/20/10
Label: Facedown Records

Maturity is a strange thing to try and quantify. It can't be counted, weighed or measured, but you can definitely see when it is present. On their latest album There Will Be Violence, Impending Doom show a maturity in songwriting that was lacking in past releases.

Though not at all bad, Nailed. Dead. Risen. was a blur of brutal grind influenced death metal, replete with blast beats galore, breakdowns a plenty and monotonous "pig squeal" vocals. Their next album, The Serpent Servant, was a step in the right direction, but as with most all deathcore, suffered from a few boring spots. Their latest effort, There Will Be Violence, was somewhat of a wild card for me. I was hoping that they would continue to mature and continue they did. In a big way.

There Will Be Violence is a good album from start to finish and there is not a filler track in the bunch. Impending Doom have written some very fast, thrashy songs for the new album and thankfully, the breakdowns are kept to a minimum. Along with the matured songwriting is improved musicianship as well. The drumming is definitely at the head of the class in that respect. Brook Reeve's vocals have also proved substantially. Gone are both the "pig squeals" and somewhat boring death growls of past albums. He also does a great job of switching from high to low vocally.

Some of the highlights for me are the title track, with it's fast tempo and speedy drumming, "Peace Illusion," with it's tempo changes, "The Great Fear," which features guest vocals from Vincent Bennett of The Acacia Strain, also the best track on the album and the very catchy closer, "Sweating Blood." There Will Be Violence does feature two instrumental tracks as well. The first, "Hell Breaks Loose," is the opener and does a great job of setting the tone of the album with it's sinister atmosphere and the second, being "Love Has Risen," which features both a great guitar riff and expertise drumming.

Rating: 8/10 Although not flawless, Impending Doom have managed to improve by leaps and bounds over past material on There Will Be Violence. They have realized that sometimes less is more in the breakdown department and have focused much more on crafting great songs.

Reviewed by Matthew Alexander

Tracklisting:

1. Hell Breaks Loose
2. There Will Be Violence
3. Orphans
4. Peace Illusion
5. The Great Fear
6. Walking Through Fire
7. Love Has Risen
8. The Son Is Mine
9. Children of Wrath
10. Sweating Blood

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