REVIEW: WolveXhys – Concord Dawn (Single/2013)

Artist: WolveXhys

Single: Concord Dawn

Imagine opening your blinds in the morning and seeing nothing but ash and smoke. The world around you slowly crumbling into dysfunction and chaos–no one is safe, as this disaster is slowly reaching out and touching every inhabitant of the planet. This sentiment–that sinking feeling in your gut and the shivers racing down your spine are the same feelings the listener gets when subjected to the aural assault that is “Concord Dawn,” the latest single from the UK’s break-out spine-crushing deathcore act, WolveXhys. The track contrasts gut-wrenching, bone-busting slams with near-symphonic hints of dissonance and sinister heaviness to create an immersive, crushing deathcore experience which you have to hear to believe.

“Concord Dawn” begins subtly enough, with a dissonant guitar introduction and only the slightest hint of the war about to waged on the listener’s ears. However, that soft foreshadowing soon morphs into a full-fledged attack on the listener, as devastatingly down-tuned guitar and punishing, pounding percussion kick in and tear the listener’s spine out through their ears. Slamming, recurring crush launches wave after wave of unending assault on the listener, while symphonic, wonderfully constructed cathedrals of harmonization create a stellar background. This complex, two-fronted attack continues, unrelenting, for nearly four minutes, until the only reprieve seems to surface: a fading, billowing and almost ethereal “conclusion” to the track. This ending is simply false hope, however, as the song pulls one last punch on the listener and completely dislocates their jaw with the heaviest breakdown the song has to offer. If the listener manages to make it out alive, they have endured the heaviest blow “Concord Dawn” has to throw. WolveXhys have truly outdone their previous singles with this track, as it is nothing but the most beautifully constructed combination of clever instrumentation and crushing heaviness that the genre has seen to date.

5/5

For Fans Of: Black Tongue, Nexilva, Bound by Exile, Infant Annihilator, Acrania

By: Connor Welsh