Domain

I live in the Midsouth US. Sadly, where I live, people jizz their pants at the thought of "Taylor Swift", "Justin Bieber", or "Rascal Flatts", and "That sounds scary" is the average response to the question "Do you like death metal?" With the exception of Whitechapel, there are no major bands that come from my state that aren't mainstream to the point of intolerance. I have a friend that lives in Oregon, and as a result I decided to adopt a few of the bands he listens to. One of these bands happened to be And Hell Followed With. On the surface, they appear to be just another deathcore band. However, they have a few qualities, good or not, that make them stand out of the crowd.

Upon listening to the first track, "The End Of Prosperity", the first thing you will notice is the extremely odd lows of the band. These are literally the most effect-laden vocals I have ever heard. They're not even "lows", it's the guy talking and having his voice warped every what way. It's ridiculous. However, I must say, I kinda like the way they came out. It's a bit extraterrestrial, and it gives the music an interesting edge that not many bands possess. It gets a bit annoying at times, though. The only time I heard an actual growl was at the end of the track "Give Breath To Her Memory", and damn, it was SWEET. Shame it wasn't used more, though. The highs, however, sound like a Black Dahlia Murder clone. I've mentioned in my other reviews how much I hate this band, but I'll say it again just because I'm a dumbass like that. Never, ever, EVER take the bottom end out of your screams. It is the most ridiculous thing that it is possible to do to your vocals. Yes, more ridiculous than making your "lows" by simply talking and adding effects to sound like a Martian demigod. Another complaint about the vocals: And Hell Followed With often incorporates shouts or yells. For God's sake, if it's an element that's been kept in hardcore punk for 40 years, KEEP it there. It's not cool to hear you shouting like a tough person; in fact, it portrays quite the opposite.

The guitars are nothing special. I must give them credit, though; when they're not chug-chug-chugging everywhere, they're pretty decent. Not something I'd prefer to some other things, but it's a start. Take for example the opening riff to "Serpents Beneath Their Hoods". It sounds pretty good, honestly. Aside from this, there's the occasional odd riff that suits your fancy for a moment or two before fading away.

The drums are, as in most deathcore albums, not noticeable to save your life, as they either follow the chugging in the breakdowns or perform sixteenth-notes on the bass pedal along with some simplistic hitting on the snare or something else stupid. However, the most disappointing part of the music is the guitars, as they do practically NOTHING. They attempt melodies and fail about 4/5 of the time; they play random notes that serve no purpose to further the music; they're a fucking wreck. However, even that's not this band's biggest problem. Out of this album's running time of 34-odd minutes, I would bet that at least 15 of that is breakdowns. I swear, the only album I have seen use more of the goddamn things was This Is Exile by Whitechapel, and that album basically WAS a huge breakdown. They're not the cool kind of breakdowns, either, like the ones on Whitechapel's first full-length. These are used in random places, in the middle of the progression of a good riff...basically anywhere it's going to piss you off to have a breakdown, one will be there. It's an And Hell Followed With guarantee!

In fact, the only place the instruments fully deliver is on the track "Legendary". The guitars come in with staccato triplets and eventually the song speeds up. The song slows down again around 3:30. And guess what? Five minutes into the song, there is not a breakdown to be fou- wait, I stand corrected. The band could not resist chugging for one more second, as the song ends in - *drum roll* - A BREAKDOWN! You know, I am really fucking pissed off right now. Even Whitechapel have shown that they can write a song sans breakdowns. Can't these limpdicks conform to anything decent?

So yeah, all in all, this album is half good and half shit. I propose that someone go to an online dictionary and recommend that instead of a slang definition of "meh", the site managers link to one of these songs. Only then will you know the true meaning of "meh", of "the mediocrity that almost wasn't", of "the goodness covered in filth known as 'chugging'", of...well, I think you get the point.

Now i'm gonna start this off by saying that i'm not just giving this album a bad review because i'm not into metalcore, because there is definitely some metalcore out there worth listening to. I'm giving this album a bad review because it truly is a repetitive redundant sound, product of guys ripping off guys who rip off good bands. You can tell these guys are huge Black Dahlia Murder fans instantly from the sound of their pseudo-gothenberg style riffing they attempt to throw into every single song they write, breaking them apart with lame predictable breakdowns. What guys like the guys in this band dont realize is that they're actually ripping off a band whos ripping off a real style, so its like double the watered down metal sound here.

The only real credible thing on this album would be the production, but the way i see it is, no matter how hard you polish a piece of dog shit, it'll always remain a piece of dog shit. Besides, some music just takes on a better persona with raw recording, which seems to be something musicians in this genre seem to not understand......

The one thing that really turned me off about this album also was the predictable unoriginal vocal approach. Nothing even remotely groundbreaking here. The musicianship is very poor as well. It sounds as if the bassist is just the guy in the band just to say hes in one, because I don't think I heard the bass step outside of the boundaries of the root notes even once on this record.

All in all, this album is a poor example of a poor genre, I wouldn't even reccomend this album to my friends who enjoy metalcore, because I truly don't think they would enjoy it, its boring, lacks heaviness, technicality, originality, and its not remotely catchy in any way. Bunk band, bunk genre. I hope to never hear this band again.