We Are Gathered Here Today

Despite the general disrespect and disregard of the average 'true' metal fan for bands falling under the banners of metalcore or the more modern usage deathcore, there always seem to be a few that slip through the cracks, gaining some modicum of acceptance with even the most jaded, xenophonic circles, and Glass Casket may belong to this cadre of rare exceptions. I've had numerous friends recommend this North Carolina act to me with full disclosure of my dislike for the style in general, and thus I decided it was about time to check them out.

I was not surprised at all to be disappointed with the band's debut We Are Gathered Here Today, but I will agree that they are far less annoying than the majority of their peers. What we have is essentially a band who mixes the earlier groove/metalcore chaos of acts like Coalesce and Burnt by the Sun and injects a slight use of death metal breaks, most of which are frankly far superior to the band's -core output, and one wonders why they couldn't just go all out. Its not that their death material is particularly effective or memorable, but having it constantly broken up by chugging gallops and spastic psycho-core groove rhythms can prove an unwelcome distraction. Vocalist Adam Cody is also no help here, as he's quite typical for the style, mixing up generic US metalcore growls over the myriad breakdown rhythms and elsewhere using a slightly more effective guttural secretion.

As musicians, the band are talented enough, that is until the Earth Crisis open mute chug sequences totally dishevel their impact, as in "And So It Was Said". Take also the track "Fisted and Forgotten", with its lovely title, and witness how the band destroy it in mere seconds, opening with a volley of spastic semi-tech death/grind and then constantly abandoning it for pretty boring chug rhythms. There are moments of promise in "Fearfully and Wonderfully Made", which cycles in booming base lines and winding thrash and old school death rhythms, or 'Scarlet Paint and Gasoline" which summons a slightly Swedish evil 90s At the Gates or melodeath flair to its spastic distractions. I wouldn't dub either of these tracks 'good', but they're a step in the right direction from the pummeling pit execution the band too often lapses into to little or no success. There's nothing about these breakdowns that will get anyone excited unless they subscribe to the lowest common denominator in metal music: that which is made more for the live/mosh experience than permanent impact upon the listener of the album.

Though my time with We Are Gathered Here Today was not well spent, or appreciated, the band at least offers a more authentic passion and delivery than, say, Carnifex on their first few CDs, or the horrendous Bleeding Through. I realize this isn't saying much, but I was far less inclined to hurl this album against the nearest concrete surface than most a Whitechapel effort. I feel like Glass Casket could run with the better Job for a Cowboy material if they went more in a straight death metal direction, and perhaps they will one day pursue this. Until that day, their visage quickly melds against a landscape of other, forgettable acts chasing the same dream to mix their death metal influence with the mosh-core plague that somehow still germinates the youth of this nation, a halter to the evolution of taste: young musicians with potential writing cheap thrills and poetic high schooly melodrama lyrics, highly saturated with symbolism in the vein of Converge and other fundamental early 90s metalcore.

-autothrall
http://www.fromthedustreturned.com

Glass Casket’s first full album, We Are Gathered Here Today, is a powerful mix of death and metalcore (or deathcore, if you will). Their sound resembles that of Cryptopsy, Between the Buried and Me, Cannibal Corpse, Beloved, Converge, and Meshuggah. The guitars are complex and fast, sometimes doing a death metal tremolo chord sequence, sometimes a metalcore break down, and sometimes an insane Cryptopsy-style jazz-metal tornado. This was exactly the kind of mix of genres I was looking for, gosh-dern I was impressed.

The Album’s first track, “Pencil Lead Syringe” puts you immediately into the Casket world. The maelstrom continues all the way until track 5 where we are introduced to an eerie world (probably equipped with fog machines) – actually it sounds kind of like the Halo background effects when you are fighting the flood – with deep-ars growling and muttering. That fades into one of my favorite tracks, “Chew Your Fingers”, with definite Cannibal Corpse influences and equipped with a good old metal solo. Their promotional track In Between the Sheets is also one of my favorites, it sounds more similar to Hate Eternal except for the middle where another nice solo makes an appearance and the vocalist show what he can do with his clean vocals for a line or two, which are very good if you like that sort of thing (I do).

The guitars of Glass Casket are something unnatural, while somewhat repetitive they still manage to keep the listener interested. Some adjectives for them would include grindy, heavy, gravel-mashed-in-your-face, a-thousand-razorblades-flying-every-which-way-cutting-the-hell-out-of-every-thing, and on occasion beautiful and floaty. The drums aren’t necessarily record breaking in speed but what they don’t have in that they make up in shear randomness and creativity. The old bongos certainly do sound like a guitar-like instrument and they fit in very nicely with the music, I wouldn’t have them other way. Fantastic. The vocals are so good, he reaches low growls and throaty screams, he also does his bit of spoken word and singing (as previously mentioned). The lyrics he writes are original and powerful, the last track, “A Gray A.M. You Will Never Get To See” is about the death of his sister, he goes from screaming the hell out of his throat, to talking to us, to calling out to the world.

I marked this down 3 points because of the repetition, which I barely mind, but still gets in the way at times.

This is a mind boggling debut from a soon to be behemoth (if you don’t mind the expression) in metal history. Cheers.

What a way to begin the subgenre "deathcore" with this masterful debut from North Carolina metallers, Glass Casket. Apparently, this album has a huge blend of death metal and metalcore which is apparent from every instrument being played, and even some black metal inspiration behind the drums as well.

While "We Are Gathered Here Today" has its death moments, a huge percentage of the album itself is actually very well written metalcore with breakdowns in various songs which lead to the typical downtuned palm muting that hardcore fans and death metalheads alike will enjoy. "WAGHT" even has its technical moments which make the listener wonder if they are listening to Meshuggah back in their glory days. Though still not as technical in their overall sound as bands like Cephalic Carnage, Into the Moat, or Extol on their album "Synergy", indeed, Glass Casket can step up to the plate even with the most extreme metal acts around and hold their heads up with pride that they can create heavy, yet beautiful melodic passages that pummel their way through the minds of the most stringent and hardened metalheads.

The vocals, though not always death-sounding as the title "deathcore inspires, still feel angry and portray the angst the singer tries to convey in his own manner.

Guitarwork and bass on "WAGHT" are awesome and maintain their own style of heaviness throughout the album. For the most part, the riffs are very inventive and dynamic, and do not linger to the point of exhaustion. Yet, they repeat just enough times to make the songs epic.

The drums throughout the entire debut are amazing and about as original as anyone can get. From metalcore to death metal, and even to occasional moments of black metal, the drummer sure has his way upon the structure of Glass Casket's music in its entirety.

"WAGHT" is a must for fans of death metal and metalcore alike, as this debut is definitely about as good as any get.

I imagine this falls under some silly subgenre like “deathcore”, likely in an effort to separate it from “real death metal.” I guess that’s somewhat fair, considering how different it is from the old school stuff, but the level of “core” is not nearly what one would expect. In fact, it’s barely there at all. What this really is, is a Cryptopsy rip-off that throws in some of the modern trends of uber-technicality (which is not to say that Cryptopsy aren’t technical themselves), schizophrenic structuring (think The Red Chord), and occasional sections of real melodicism (not surprising considering they share two members with Between the Buried and Me, although I believe at the time of recording it was only the one guitarist). And yeah, in a few spots there are near-breakdowns. Deal.
I could probably end this review by adding, “It rules” to the above, but I’ll try to get a bit more descriptive. Vocals are full-on death metal; no faux-death hardcore vox here. Generally not too deep, but every so often he goes super low. The lyrics are excellent, although a bit too reminiscent of The Red Chord’s approach. This may, however, be a case in which the student surpasses the teacher. The guitar tone is sharp; it’s not quite as thick as might be preferable normally, but with the intricacy of the riffing, it is nice to be able to hear every note. Drumming is highly competent, as expected in this style.
The band has two big strengths and, perhaps unexpectedly, brutality is not one of them. No question, the band rips, but this isn’t the rabid dog-type style of The Red Chord. Glass Casket are much more willing to let a riff play itself out; each section is given room to breathe. But about those strengths: One is the structuring; despite the schizo nature of the songs, nothing is that jarring. They’ve managed to make as much sense as possible out of chaos. The second big bragging point here is the melodic stuff, which is very powerful. “In Between the Sheets” and “A Gray A.M. You Will Never Get to See”, which utilize that aspect of the songwriting the most, are by far the strongest tracks on the record. Notably, they never slip into the near-emo area that Between the Buried and Me might be accused of.
In conclusion, this is a very, very good disc from a band that will probably put out something even better at some point. It should appeal to a rather wide audience within metal’s fanbase.