Woe Of Tyrants
Behold The Lion
8.1
Synopsis:
Though hardly bringing anything new to the death metal tinged metalcore table, much like label mates From the Shallows, The Damascus Intervention and The Demonstration, as well as highly similar acts At The Throne of Judgment, The Storm and The Concubine, Woe of Tyrants do an excellent job of mixing death metal skill, tenacity and thrash metal presence with metalcore’s commercial appeal to the ‘kids’ today.
Review:
Though rife with loads excellent solos, Behold, the Lion is hardly original...but man is it enjoyable. The song writing is crisp and well-executed and relatively free of metalcore clichés (breakdowns, acoustics, clean singing etc.) and has a tangible Bay Area undercurrent (especially the excellent title track) resulting in a just damn fun album to listen to.
Citing Testament, Exodus, Metallica and even Holy Terror as influences, Ohio’s Woe of Tyrants, even with their deeper death metal growls and familiar Jamie King production aren’t just name dropping; their delivery has classic thrash all over it, but with a death metal sheen and snarl. Guitarists Chris Burns and Matt Kincaid do a nice job and trading off slicing riffs and sweeping solos (arguable standout “Yoke of Slavery”), while never treading into The Human Abstract or With Passion levels of arpeggio overkill.
“Eureka” even with its restrained start, delivers a visceral high octane thrash assault, while “Role of The Brutes” just kicks you in the teeth-and therein lies the minor problem with Woe of Tyrants--there’s very little pacing or restraint in these 9 tracks. As fun as a 45 minute thrash fest is, there has to be a few moments to breathe and regroup-all the masters had it/did it, and Woe of Tyrants could have used that slower, rumbling, chugging track or instrumental to break things up, because as it is, Behold, The Lion tends to bleed into one long solo filled track (I could hardly tell when “Role of the Brutes” ends and “The Battle at Borders Break” starts).
Still though, “Fable Thy Destination”, tries in spurts and Woe of Tyrants end the album impressively, if with little differentiation from the other 8 tracks, making for an impressive debut from a band that looks to make waves.
Related
Woe Of TyrantsThrenody
4/13/2010