audiopinions

Knights Of The Abyss – Culling Of Wolves
Ferret Music (August 17, 2010)
RIYL: New Whitechapel
2.5/5

The second half of 2010 has started really strong with some great releases, but there have also been some misses released. One anticipated release has been the new Knights Of The Abyss record. Knights Of The Abyss are still signed to Ferret Music, which is now a part of Warner Music, and seem to be primed to make it big if this record sells well. The catch is, there is no way this album will sell well.

Culling Of Wolves is suffering from Whitechapel syndrome, where a band goes from a good or great album to a mind numbingly mundane album. “The House of Crimson Coin” starts out with some fantastic guitar work but that quickly exits for a basic guitar riff over the vocals. The vocals by themselves are good enough, but for fans of the old albums, these vocals just do not cut it. Them seem to be lacking their own identity and uniqueness throughout this album. While the vocals are in the decent range of things, the guitarists are in the green with some fantastic bursts of technical riffs and solos. These, sadly, are not more prominent or this album would be a lot more pleasing to listeners.

A lot of monotoneism of the record comes from the drums. The drummer really does nothing special behind the kit to warrant any reaction, and with music with very few breakdowns and technical guitar riffs this hurts the album the most. This causes the listener to be fed three layers of monotone, which is in comparison to being fed three layers of Tofu or Spam. Of course the bassist just stays with the drumming in the background doing nothing to catch your ear to it playing.

Culling Of Wolves is an average record with almost nothing to help it out. The band probably decided that it was best to remove a lot of the hardcore elements to appeal to today’s scene like all the other bands, but only Job For A Cowboy has gotten better from this progression. This record sadly gets dumped into the 2010 disappointment bin.