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All Shall Perish > Hate . Malice . Revenge > Reviews
All Shall Perish - Hate . Malice . Revenge

Not bad, but a shaky start - 55%

BlackMetal213, July 20th, 2015

Hailing from Oakland, California, All Shall Perish are, without a doubt, originators of the deathcore genre. This album was released in 2003, two years before Job For a Cowboy even released their monumental "Doom" EP, but also a half year after Despised Icon debuted with "Consumed by Your Poison" in 2002. This isn't the absolute first deathcore album, but considering the genre was still in its new-born stage in 2003, it is one of the first influential albums in the scene. But just because something is influential doesn't mean it's good, does it? This album certainly is not a bad release, but it's not all that good either, and is certainly the most lackluster album All Shall Perish has released throughout their career thus far. Fear not, though! There are still some fair moments of extreme metal goodness to be found during this album's 36 minutes.

Beginning with the aggressive "Deconstruction", it becomes clear what this Californian quintet was trying to achieve. This song begins with some kickass death metal riffing and a ferocious blast beat, which definitely is one of the album's shining moments. However, like each of the 8 songs on here, the structure of this track is extremely predictable. Barbaric riffing with drumming that sounds like a deranged gorilla with ADD is sitting behind the kit. Sure, when the band is playing tightly and everything sounds effectively heavy and brutal, this album comes across as a solid death metal release with hints of melody here and there. However, these moments are always interrupted by simplistic breakdowns. Yes, I am well aware that breakdowns are a definitive formulaic principle in deathcore. They are pretty much what makes deathcore, well, deathcore. But at the same time, they do get tiring when they're implemented in every track on the album. At worst, these breakdowns are listenable but repetitive and boring. At best, they are fairly solid. The breakdowns on the second track "Laid to Rest" are probably my favorite throughout the record. They aren't necessarily unique or anything, but they're effective with what they do. "Laid to Rest" also contains some of the most melodic riffing on the entire album that shows evident influence of the Gothenburg melodic death metal movement. Some of the guitars on this album borrow a lot of similar ideas used by the bands At the Gates, Dark Tranquillity, and In Flames, mostly these bands' early recordings. Unfortunately, there are no guitar solos to be heard anywhere on this album, and that's a crying shame. On the band's following albums, they incorporated a fair amount of great guitar solos and this album is completely void of that. The closest thing to a solo is a short melodic bit on "Laid to Rest", and that still cannot be classified as a guitar solo.

While the guitar riffing is standard melodic death metal mixed with fairly uninspired metalcore breakdowns, the vocals are purely death metal. They are full of hate, malice, and revenge (see what I did there?). Craig Betit does have a noticeably decent range, and can go from low growls, to higher-pitched screams, to squeals. However, is he as good a vocalist as Hernan "Eddie" Hermida? The answer is no. Eddie is a far superior vocalist to Craig, but Craig is still fairly talented albeit slightly generic. He gets the job done effectively without stepping too far outside of his comfort zone.

Sure, this album is nothing absolutely amazing, but it's not a bad release either. It's definitely a classic in the deathcore genre. It just doesn't do enough to be mind-blowing or even amazing. It certainly is an influential album and a classic at that, but really, that doesn't mean the album itself is great. Thankfully, All Shall Perish would soon grasp their crushing yet melodic sound on future releases and peak with their 2008 release, the modern classic that is "Awaken the Dreamers".

Beendone.Muchfuckinbetter.Bro - 40%

autothrall, November 4th, 2013

Is there anything more frustrating than an extreme metal record which wastes so little time in dispensing its potential qualities to reveal its true nature: a reductionist, lazy bro-down mosh vehicle? All Shall Perish has long been presented to me (by acquaintances) as one of the most 'legit' acts in the deathcore field, an example of toughguycore backed by some real Oakland street cred, tight musicianship and something I might get into since I have both a soft spot for NYHC and a few of the more musical efforts in this particular niche (like Job for a Cowboy's recent output). So I decided to delve into their catalog, of which I only had a cursory knowledge from a few videos, and thus far I'm turning up blanks folks...this, lamentably, sort of sucks, and what makes it worse is that if I went at it with a paring knife I could probably carve out a 10-15 chunk of decency.

Unlike some of their later stuff I've heard, which seems to thrive more on that In Flames/Black Dahlia Murder axis with the more technical, perky melodic riffing, Hate.Malice.Revenge seems to dwell in a space between a more surgical, brutal death metal influence and the unnecessary neanderthal slog-core that soils it as an experience (at least for me). You've got some fairly apt tremolo picking selections here which range from Carcass to Deicide to Morbid Angel and these are broken up by some of the most banal palm muted chug sequences you've heard since bands like Earth Crisis capitalized on them in the earlier 90s. To the Californians' credit, they do incorporate a lot of slower, dreary melodies which might even belong to the Bolt Thrower camp if weren't based around such basic pit structures, but in general you range from the faster picked tremolo death to the breakdown and that's the majority of what I hear on this, without any real clue on how to incorporate the tempo shifts with any tact or style. The notes match, the shift in pacing is not unappreciated, I just found myself hoping for some nuance or cleverness in how they distributed the blunt punishment. It's kid stuff...with something more mature struggling to break free.

Vocals are incredibly generic here, but it's all too rare among the deathcore crowd that they are anything else? This was before they got the better known Hernan Hermida (who has since moved over to replace Mitch in Suicide Silence), who became synonymous with their sound, but here you've just got a selection of generic 'look, Mom, I can growl too' gutturals and higher pitched, retching snarls. Not awful, but overbearing in that typical American fashion where sounding brutal and oppressive trumps having any character or true distinction to one's performance. You could interchange this guy with almost any kid you pulled off the street and arrive at similar results, whereas death metal was once about having some uniqueness or charisma...can you imagine if a deathcore band boisted a frontman as compelling as a Martin van Drunen, John Tardy or Paul Speckmann? Yes, I know, that's a grand idea, so if you've got some in mind, do point them out, as the vocals always seem such a shortcoming for this subgenre. Gurgle like an indistinct toilet over the pathetic palm mutes: for the win! Fuck off!

Everything just seems so custom-made for moshing on this disc that it seems entirely inconsequential when you're outside of that setting, and that might work out for some records, but here it just doesn't equate to a pleasurable listening experience. Surprisingly, there are few production pitfalls. I like the way Hate.Malice. Revenge actually SOUNDS, just not the choices the band makes in sculpting that sound. Roiling, chuggy guitars that don't dowse themselves in unnecessary effects. Tribal like drumming that lurches along with every groove, and a nice and fat bass tone which at least adds to the mix, if not a lot of interesting notes and fills. The vocals are loud, which is a constant in deathcore and metalcore, but not to the point of distracting away from the chords. Elsewhere, the aesthetics of this debut are fucking pitiful. The 'three harsh words separated by period punctuation' album title has already been done by bands like Revenge and Watchmaker, who are actually good, so that never needed to be revisted. Also can't stand this band's logo...it just reads like any generic House of Pain-era tattoo from the 90s, and I don't even find that acceptable or interesting even when a straight up hardcore band does it...groups like Hatebreed started a nasty trend, methinks.

I'm going to assume All Shall Perish was a pretty young group when this dropped a decade ago, but the lyrics are mediocre in the way most 'heartfelt' hardcore/metalcore emotional stuff was in the early 90s, reading like the scrawls and soul-searching of a 14 year old in his freshman notebook. To be fair, a few of them have that same apocalyptic vibes to them (common in deathcore), but others are about relationships and being betrayed and hurt and how awful that all is, whether in a domestic situation or a girl/boyfriend. Hey dudes, there's plenty of pussy in this world (or dick, if that's your fix), but if you're going to write about how you've been squashed, how about trying some metaphor? Some lasting imagery? Interesting syllabic patterns? If bros could write like that close to a thousand years ago, why can't you? I think bands like Converge or Trap Them really set the standard for all lyrical things 'core, so it's a fraction painful to read the more primitive sentiments...not that primitive is always bad, but if it's not going to be entertaining, it's not enough.

Hate.Malice.Revenge was a pretty unusual release for Amputated Vein since the label focuses almost exclusively on brutal death, but I can see how they might wanna take a chance on this since the style did not immediately create such friction among the diehard goremongers. However, I feel like they might have taken this chance with a better band. Granted, I'm in the minority, and these guys blew up pretty big with their Nuclear Blast deal (which produced a few superior albums that I'll cover later), but I get the impression from Hate.Malice.Revenge that these guys were just the local neighborhood flavor who just had their shit together enough to put on some raging pits at their gigs, and that seems to be the only musical momentum this material is capable of. Brief glimpses of something more engaging throughout, but ultimately a sodden and underwhelming experience beyond balling up your fist and juicin' the testosterone. Dude metal for dudes who wanna hit other dudes repeatedly, but those into music for the MUSIC would be better served with the later All Shall Perish outings.

-autothrall
http://www.fromthedustreturned.com

Deathcore? - 85%

Waspman, August 23rd, 2006

Orignally released by Japan’s Amputated Vein Records in 2003, HATE.MALICE.REVENGE is Oakland, California’s All Shall Perish’s debut CD. Partially influenced by those new-fangled metalcore sounds (though not half as much as some would have you believe), but mostly by good old-fashioned death metal (of both the Floridian and Swedish variety), All Shall Perish are a new punishing force to be reckoned with.

When the first strains of “Deconstruction” blast through the speakers, you’re immediately transported back to the heyday of 1991 when albums like LIKE AN EVER-FLOWING STREAM and LEFT HAND PATH reigned supreme. Craig Betit’s vocals are pure death aggression and the rest of the band grinds like the gods of yore. Right away, it’s obvious that All Shall Perish easily decimates metalcore bands like Shadows Fall and As I Lay Dying, not to mention the fact that they obliterate whiners like Atreyu. Sure, some metalcore creeps into Betit’s vocals, but it is always the shouted portions – there is no melodic crooning to be found here. As well, there are riffs and breakdowns here that are ripped straight from the metalcore playbook, but they are quickly swept away in a flurry of Dismembered riffs.

There is nothing groundbreaking in HATE.MALICE.REVENGE’S churn, but it certainly is ground-shaking! This album will beat the living hell out of you for all of its brief 36 minutes and leave you craving for more. Leave the pretenders behind – All Shall Perish are the real thing.

-------Originally posted at Metal-Rules.com (June 2005)------

Not Metalcore. - 64%

CapsLock, April 1st, 2006

This album flies high above the whiny and simplistic metalcore dog shit like Killswitch Engage and Trivium. Though it has it's breakdowns and it's nu- moments reeking of shit, the majority is quite good. Nothing new, but solid riffs, brutal vocals, and blast beats can't be ignored.

The album opens up with Deconstruction, which up until 1:38 is a fantastic black/thrash/death/fuck metal song. It's full of blast beats, deathy tremolo guitars, and there's about 3 or 4 riffs in the one minute. The guitars even sound slayer-esque around 0:45. It all turns to shit though once it hits the shitty and predictable single-chord metalcore breakdown stage at 1:38, then finishes off with a tribute to Slipknot.

Overall, I must give this album it's props. The vocals are brutal and diverse, the riffs are solid and plentiful, and they aren't ripping any bands off. However, the amount of breakdowns and groove moments (that don't fit by the way) throw this album quite a bit off, destroying any chance it has of becoming a good death metal album.

If they threw all the good parts from each song together, they'd have a full fledged fuckin' metal song. The fact is that it's about 70% quality interrupted by breakdowns and predictable slipknot worship.

I'd say it's worth picking up, but just barely.

Too damn good to ignore! - 82%

krozza, March 11th, 2005

It is remarkable how some bands come by a recording contract isn’t it? Oakland, CA bruisers have been doing their thing since 2002 – a massive hybrid of death metal meets metalcore thrash - way better than a lot of other bands of similar ilk. Yet, for some strange reason they end up - not on Metal Blade, not on Relapse and not on Century Media – but on the Japanese label Amputated Vein! In August 2003, they released All Shall Perish’s debut album ‘Hate.Malice.Revenge’. Some 18 months later, Nuclear Blast, recognising the talent and the somewhat ‘trendy’ metalcore vibe of the ban, nabs them from the Jap’s and in Feb 2005 re-issues ‘HMR’ to the world. They’ve made some dodgy decisions at times, but re-releasing this disc is one of the best moves Nuclear Blast has made since signing Omnium Gatherum.

What a fucking killer disc this is punters. As stated, ‘HMR’ is a massive hybrid of Death Metal, Metalcore, Scandinavian melody, Thrash, Grind and Doom. Each influence captured in just the right dosage for maximum effect and impact. If you’re looking for a tag to place around their necks well the Death Metal (Death-core if you like) element is probably the most obvious, but the great thing about that is that ASP never rely on tired generic patterns to get their point across. There are just too many twists, turns and tempo changes for the band ever to become stuck in a rut. The ability of the band to move from snare blasting death to huge hulking breakdowns and open chord doom riffs whist adding slices of almost Swedish laden guitar affectations is damn impressive. The song writing is top notch throughout – other than a guarantee to pummel you senseless, you never really know what they’ll do next. This is a very good thing.

Clearly All Shall Perish is not redefining any sort of musical genre with ‘HMR’. Everything thing you hear is well and truly recognisable. Their intention is to give a well worn sound a healthy tweak via some well thought out song writing and technical flair. Furthermore, the musicianship and simply crushing production adds another positive slant to the whole feel of this album. From Craig Betit’s and Caysen Russo’s acerbic vocals to his and Beniko Orum’s seriously spiteful guitar work, from Mike Tiner’s audible bass lines to Matt Kuykendall’s precision drumming, the whole thing just slays!

‘HMR’ positively rips from beginning to end. ‘ASP’ has a dynamic quality about their song writing and some fantastic production values. If you’re a fan of bands like Suffocation, Slayer, Hypocrisy, Dying Fetus, Misery Index and Euro metal core like Cataract and Heaven Shall Burn, expect to hear a slice of each on this re-issued disc. It’s come to us in a roundabout way but finally this band will get the attention they deserve. ‘HMR’ is too damn good to ignore really. Highly Recommended.