Impending Doom has gone from a rising force in Christian metalcore to a household name in the five years since their debut Nailed. Dead. Risen hit shelves. Despite that album being a lesson in monotonous blast beats and piq squeals, Impending Doom has worked hard to break away from that image and has streamlined their sound to the point of near perfection with their fourth studio album Baptized in Filth.
What separates Baptized in Filth from Impending Doom’s previous albums is its diversity. The band still plays brutal deathcore with guttural vocals and skull crushing breakdowns, but this time around the listener is actually able to tell each song apart. Tempos are constantly shifting around in each song and some building dissonance goes a long way to creating a tense atmosphere. Although pretty uncommon in deathcore, some of the songs actually feature vocal hooks that you’ll catch yourself screaming along under your breath. The opener Murderer has what actually resembles a catchy chorus, and it surprisingly works without sounding cheesy or sacrificing any heaviness. Ambient intros can be found on several songs which add some much needed melody to the otherwise completely crushing sound. The song My Light Unseen features guest vocals from Demon Hunter’s Ryan Clark and is probably the most melodic song Impending Doom has ever recorded. Despite the introduction of more melodic songs to their catalog, this does not diminish the intensity of the rest of the tracks. This is actually one of the most angry sounding albums I have heard this year. The production quality is superb and the breakdowns will absolutely destroy in a decent audio system. Despite the added variation, sometimes the songs start to sound the same with the almost constant reliance on breakdowns. If the band can break out of this mold completely they can take their songs much further.
Lyric wise this album is as angry as Christian metal can get. Lyrics deal with deception, hell, the end of the world, destructive heresy, and the destruction of mankind. Impending Doom does not play around when it comes to spiritual salvation and applies a huge dose of tough love to unbelievers and calls them to immediate repentance.
Overall this album is a huge step forward for Impending Doom and will keep them from being perceived as just another break down centric death core band.
4 out of 5
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~Review by: DanielJTerry
