With two weeks remaining before the highly anticipated release of WHITECHAPEL's self-titled NEW album, the excitement is continuing to build. Today singer Phil Bozeman and guitarist Alex Wade have provided an exclusive track-by-track breakdown of the NEW album below. Delve into the minds of two members of WHITECHAPEL as they give you the meanings and stories behind the NEW songs and check out the breakdown below (courtesy of Absolute Punk).
PHIL BOZEMAN's track-by-track breakdown:
Make It Bleed: This song is about being constantly watched by someone/something (enemy, government, ect.) and their waiting for when you realize that they are watching you. Kind of like illuminati conspiracy.
Hate Creation: This is about caring and being selfless constantly and just being screwed over no matter how much good you do. Eventually, you just blow up.
(Cult)uralist: This is about giving into fads and following anything you can to be noticed. This song is just me talking about how I will never give into it and telling people that they're fucking stupid, get a life.
I, Dementia: This is basically talking from the perspective of dementia as if it were a person. Basically two split personalities clashing with each other.
Section 8: It's a military term for a mentally unstable person. This song is about a person driven mad by society and just losing it.
Faces: This song seems political but it's just standing up against a tyrant or a power driven waste of life and killing him. I've dealt with people like this my whole life.
Dead Silence: This song is pointed towards prophesies believed by a certain human being and scaring the masses with it. Aka, Harold Camping.
The Night Remains: This one is just a fucked up place I made up in my head. A place where there is only horror, violence and suffering. Where the sun never shines and the seas are blood instead of water which when contacted with a corpse, it reanimates itself into a demon that can't be killed.
Possibilities of an Impossible Existence: This song is just depressing. Anything that is a fear, tragedy, etc. is what this song is about. It's how we will never be able to coexist.
ALEX WADE's track-by-track breakdown:
Make It Bleed: With every album the opening song has always had an "epic" and "melodic" vibe to it. "The Somatic Defilement" "Father of Lies" and "Devolver" all kind of have this powerfully melodic and epic vibe to them, so with this song we strived to do the same. It's still very heavy and pummeling but definitely the most melodic song on the CD. The melodies are very dark and brooding, from the piano intro to the clean/acoustic guitar break in the middle of the song. The lead that breaks out in the middle of the song lets the listener know to expect some catchy solos on the record as well.
Hate Creation: Probably my second favorite song on the cd, this song is very reminiscent to the title track on "This Is Exile" in my opinion. It's very fast and abrasive, the blasting on this song reaches speeds we have never done before on previous records. I love how fast and angry the song is but in the middle of the track there is the ambient and toned down section. It's gives off a really cool "Tool" vibe and I love the ambient guitars in the background, we used an Ebow on the guitar to achieve that effect. Vocally the track sounds a lot like Slipknot, I even saw some discussion where kids thought we literally had Corey Taylor do guest vocals, but all the vocals are done by Phil. In fact there are no guest vocals at all on this record, everything was done by Phil. The song is tuned in B standard on a 7 string, which is something new to us; we usually utilize drop tunings, not standard.
(Cult)uralist: This song is definitely no holds barred and it kicks you in the teeth from the beginning. It reminds me a lot of Behemoth. Very much straightforward death metal until it reaches the groovy tom break at 00:52. Phil's vocals shine over the Meshuggah-esque riff that follows, screaming words faster than most rappers can speak softly. We all just laughed in amazement when he did it in the studio. That part was all one take, believe me or not, I was there and saw it with my own eyes haha. Towards the ending of this song there is another really great solo that Ben did. This song was tuned in drop A, which is what every album has been tuned to until this cd. The majority of this CD was tuned in drop G, aside from this track, Hate Creation, and Devoid.
I, Dementia: This is my favorite song on the record by far. It is very dark and brooding, and the main intro/chorus riff reminds me a lot of Rammstein or Meshuggah. It has a very driving, almost marching type rhythm to it. It's the slowest, and heaviest song we have ever written. The clean break in the middle of the song sets the mood for the following riff after it, which sounds like an anvil falling from the sky and landing on a puppy. The solo towards the end is my favorite solo on the CD, which was written and performed by our good friend in our hometown Ben Eller.
Section 8: Most of our fans are familiar with this song already as we tracked it for the Recorrupted EP in fall of 2011. It's a great song and we felt like it didn't get the recognition it deserved on the EP, so we decided to completely re-track everything and put it on the new album. The song structure itself is exactly the song; we just re-recorded the song so the quality would be up to par with the rest of the album. I think it sounds drastically better as this version compared to the EP and I am really glad we re-recorded it.
Faces: This song kicks in really fast and has a very "punk rock" vibe to it. The rhythm of the kicks and guitars are very percussive and tight, much like a Fear Factory style riff. It has one of my favorite riffs on the whole cd, which is at 1:32. I love how the guitars are chugging along yet the kick is reserved and let's the riff breathe. That style of riffing is definitely something I would like to utilize more in the future. The song also features another guest solo from our friend Ben Eller as well.
Dead Silence: Probably my third favorite track on the CD, this song is also very dark in tone and really groovy as well. The riffs are very chuggy and groove oriented. We just wanted this song to be very straight forward and angry. Even the chorus while sounding very melodic, you can still hear and feel the anger behind Phil's voice. The break towards the middle of the song where Phil's vocals pan left and right with the guitars sounds really cool as well. The acoustic ending of the song is one of my favorite sections of the CD too, Ben wrote that in the back of the bus one night and liked it so much he just recorded it with his phone and sent it to Mark (the producer) and asked him to drop it in. That's why it has that really distant and "telephone" kind of sound to it. It's also a great segue into "The Night Remains".
The Night Remains: This song is short but sweet. It gets it point across by being relentlessly heavy but filled with catchy hooks. The riffs remind me of an almost rock 'n roll death metal, kind of in the vein of Entombed. The beginning of the track is actually a mandolin that Ben played and then Mark threw a bunch of crazy effects on it to give it an eerie vibe. I like Phil’s vocals on this a lot, he did a good job of using hooks and catchy lyrical patterns to suite the music.
Devoid: We didn't do an instrumental track on "A New Era of Corruption" and everyone like "Of Legions" from "This Is Exile" so much we decided to do another instrumental on this CD. The overall vibe of this song is very desolate and lonely sounding, which is why Phil called the track "Devoid". The piano intro leads into a very melodic yet crushing breakdown riff that is repeated in a way that is captivating. You can't help but nod your head along with this track.
Possibilities of an Impossible Existence: Another one of my favorites from this album, this song has a very depressing tone to it in my opinion. An overall theme of despair musically and lyrically. The song is relentless, from the driving opening riff that reminds me of Mastodon to the verse riff that pounds over and over again in the style of Meshuggah. The chorus in this song is much like the chorus to Dead Silence, it's melodic yet instead of angry, it's almost sad sounding. I like on this record how we were able to convey emotion not only through the vocals and lyrics, but with the instruments as well. The ending of the CD is the same piano part from the introduction of the CD. This was done on purpose to kind of tie the end to the beginning, to make the CD a "whole" rather than just stopping at the end.
'Whitechapel' is available for pre-order in exclusive bundle packages HERE.
Loudwire is hosting an exclusive stream of the single "I, Dementia" HERE.
In NEW WHITECHAPEL tour news, the band has just confirmed a string of dates with Hatebreed, All Shall Perish and Deez Nuts. The tour is scheduled to kick off September 13th in Clifton Park, NY and will run through October 12th in Detroit, MI. Tickets go on sale for fan club members Wednesday June 6th and for the general public on Friday June 8th. A complete list of dates can be found below.
Having spent several years lauded as one of the frontrunners in their genre, in 2012 WHITECHAPEL stand as a defining force in contemporary heavy music. Building dramatically on the trademarked bludgeon of their first three releases, with 'Whitechapel' the Tennessean sextet have inarguably delivered their most intense, dynamic, and downright hostile record to date. Drenched in atmospheric darkness, the record is also rife with gripping melodies that drag the listener in to the tumult, willing or otherwise, and across its ten tracks it is infused with an emotional depth that pointedly separates the band from the plethora of two-dimensional mosh-starters that have sprung up in their wake.
The album was engineered and mixed by Mark Lewis (The Black Dahlia Murder, DevilDriver), who also handled production duties alongside the band. The album artwork was created by Aaron Marsh of Forefathers Group with art direction provided by WHITECHAPEL.
WHITECHAPEL filmed a series of videos during the recording process of the NEW album. The first video in the series provides an in depth look at the drum tracking process for the album and can be viewed HERE. The second installment focuses on the recording of the guitar parts for the new album and is available for viewing HERE. The third video focuses on the vocal tracking process and can be viewed HERE.
The first single from Whitechapel entitled "Hate Creation" is available for streaming exclusively HERE.
Whitechapel Tracklisting:
1) Make it Bleed
2) Hate Creation
3) (Cult)uralist
4) I, Dementia
5) Section 8
6) Faces
7) Dead Silence
8) The Night Remains
9) Devoid
10) Possibilities of an Impossible Existence
Don't forget that WHITECHAPEL will be making their return to North
American this summer as part of the ROCKSTAR ENERGY DRINK MAYHEM
FESTIVAL! Here is the complete list of tour dates:
6/30 – San Bernardino, CA
7/1 – San Francisco, CA
7/3 – Seattle, WA
7/6 – Phoenix, AZ
7/7 – Albuquerque, NM
7/8 – Denver, CO
7/10 – Dallas, TX
7/11 – Houston, TX
7/13 – Tampa, FL
7/14 – Atlanta, GA
7/15 – Indianapolis, IN
7/18 – Oklahoma City, OK
7/20 – St. Louis, MO
7/21 – Chicago, IL
7/22 – Detroit, MI
7/24 – Cincinnati, OH
7/25 – Cleveland, OH
7/27 – Philadelphia, PA
7/28 – Pittsburgh, PA
7/29 – Washington, DC
7/31 – Saratoga, NY
8/1 – Buffalo, NY
8/3 – Boston, MA
8/4 – Scranton, PA
8/5 – Hartford, CT
WHITECHAPEL with HATEBREED, ALL SHALL PERISH & DEEZ NUTS:
- Thu/Sep 13: Clifton Park, NY @ Upstate Concert Hall
- Fri/Sep 14: Worcester, MA @ The Palladium
- Sat/Sep 15: Philadelphia, PA @ Electric Factory
- Sun/Sep 16: Sayreville, NJ @ Starland Ballroom
- Mon/Sep 17: Buffalo, NY @ The Town Ballroom
- Tue/Sep 18: Cleveland, OH @ House Of Blues
- Wed/Sep 19: Chicago, IL @ House Of Blues
- Thu/Sep 20: Lawrence, KS @ Granada Theater
- Fri/Sep 21: Denver, CO @ The Summit Music Hall
- Sat/Sep 22: Salt Lake City, UT @ In The Venue
- Sun/Sep 23: Boise, ID @ Knitting Factory Concert House
- Mon/Sep 24: Spokane, WA @ Knitting Factory Concert House
- Tue/Sep 25: Seattle, WA @ Showbox at the Market
- Wed/Sep 26: Portland, OR @ Roseland Theater
- Thu/Sep 27: Sacramento, CA @ Ace of Spades
- Fri/Sep 28: San Francisco, CA @ The Regency Ballroom
- Sat/Sep 29: Pomona, CA @ The Fox Theater
- Sun/Sep 30: San Diego, CA @ House of Blues
- Mon/Oct 01: Tucson, AZ @ The Rock
- Wed/Oct 03: Austin, TX @ Emo's East
- Thu/Oct 04: Dallas, TX @ House of Blues
- Fri/Oct 05: Houston, TX @ Warehouse Live
- Sat/Oct 06: New Orleans, LA @ House of Blues
- Sun/Oct 07: Atlanta, GA @ The Masquerade
- Mon/Oct 08: Jacksonville, NC @ Hooligans
- Tue/Oct 09: Charlotte, NC @ Amos' Southend
- Wed/Oct 10: Richmond, VA @ The National
- Thu/Oct 11: Pittsburgh, PA @ Stage AE
- Fri/Oct 12: Detroit, MI @ Harpo’s
AUGUST BURNS RED, THE DEVIL WEARS PRADA & WHITECHAPEL:
- 26/10/12 – DE – Köln – Underground
- 28/10/12 – BE – Brussels – AB
- 30/10/12 – DE – Hamburg – Markthalle
- 31/10/12 – DE – Münster – Skaters Palace
- 01/11/12 – DK – Aarhus – Voxhall
- 02/11/12 – SE – Gothenburg – Brewhouse
- 05/11/12 – SE – Stockholm – Klubben
- 06/11/12 – SE – Malmö – KB
- 03/11/12 – NO – Oslo – Fabrikken
- 07/11/12 – DK – Copenhagen – Pumpehuset
- 08/11/12 – DE – Berlin – C-Club
- 09/11/12 – DE – Chemnitz – Südbahnhof
- 10/11/12 – PL – Warsaw – Progresja
- 11/11/12 – PL – Krakow – Kwadrat
- 13/11/12 – DE – Frankfurt – Batschkapp
- 14/11/12 – DE – München – Backstage Halle
- 16/11/12 – CH – Zürich – Komplex
- 17/11/12 – IT – Milan – Tunnel Club
- 18/11/12 – DE – Karlsruhe – Substage
- 19/11/12 – FR – Paris – Le Bataclan
More dates will be announced shortly!
Related links:
White Chapel
