Deathcore is a genre that has somewhat fractured over the years. Ever since the early 2010’s, many of the bands who played straight deathcore took the genre in a different direction. Suicide silence went for a more Nu-Metal flavoured deathcore, Job for a Cowboy went in a more tech-death direction, Carnifex used black metal and Bring Me the Horizon moved into metalcore………. and then eventually into pop. The latter transition from deathcore to metalcore is a fairly common one and thankfully the metalcore that comes out as a result of this transition is usually of very high quality, but very few bands have done it better than Betraying the Martyrs. The French 6-piece outfit have been putting out quality death-inspired metalcore ever since 2014, often mixing extremely heavy verses with softer choruses creating a very contrasting sound. This, with the addition of keyboards, gives them a massive wall of sound and forms a creative blend of deathcore and metalcore (even if they did cover ‘Let it Go’ from frozen). With every album we see them branching out into some form of new territory but this album may be one of their most ambitious attempts to date. It still manages to maintain a lot of what is good about their previous albums, i.e. heavy riffing, clever use of synth etc, but some of the more artistic elements implemented into this album give it an edge that makes almost every track interesting.
For this album, it seems as though the band has taken influence from a lot of the typical features of modern death metal; but not necessarily in the way you might be expecting. Firstly, it seems as though many of the tracks have a somewhat progressive feel to them, with songs like ‘Parasite’ and ‘The Swarm’ having more complex rhythms in the drums and guitar work that complements that rhythm appropriately. It feels as though the band may have been inspired by Gojira for this album (which is a huge compliment to them even if I am wrong in my assumption), with songs like ‘Monster’ being a good example of this. It has complex rhythms in the drums and appropriately complex, persistent guitars which are then given another level of depth with both the harmonic usage of the synth (I’m particularly fond of the piano lead midway through the song), and of course the breakdowns, a staple of the BtM sound. In particular, Aaron Matt’s clean vocals, in particular, are reminiscent of Joe Duplantier’s doom-laden vocals on his newer albums. I also felt throughout the whole album that the vocals were very well handled. It was a big risk for the band to use Aaron as a clean singer in certain songs, especially when keyboardist Victor Guillet does such a good job, however instead of feeling forced, the eerie, bass voice layers the album vocally and especially on songs like ‘’Eternal Machine’’ where he transitions briefly to clean vocals after dishing out some heavy screams in the first breakdown. The only problem I have with these vocals is that they aren’t used nearly as much as they should be, with Aaron only singing clean on about ¼ of the album.
As well as the stylistic borrowing of Gojira heard on the album, we also hear a lot of nu-metal elements which give certain tracks a groove and a bounciness to them. The aforementioned ’Eternal Machine’ has elements of this due to the slower tempo, lower tuned guitars and bouncier rhythms. The song also has a fairly loose structure, sticking to a typical verse-chorus form, but lengthening the verses with stop and start vocals, and adding solid breakdowns in between verses and choruses. In general, the song seems like a venture into the more modern sound of metalcore, similar to that of someone like Northlane or Polaris. The big difference with this album though is that unlike many popular metalcore bands who move into this territory, it doesn’t feel forced or badly motivated. On songs like ‘The Swarm’ the low tuned guitars and slower tempo give the same nu-metalcore vibe as heard before; however it’s backed up by some seriously strong riffing and ambient usage of keys which creates a genuine, dark atmosphere. On the other side of that we have songs like ‘Rapture’, which takes this dark atmosphere in a very different direction. Although there are indeed sections in the song that sound very modern-metalcore focused such as the end of the song, the song itself feels very black metal inspired, with fast blast beats throughout, melodic, higher-pitched guitars, and both the keys and orchestral synth over the top. The song actually sounds akin to that of a band like Dimmu Borgir, where the typical elements of black metal are present, but the recording quality is much more polished than your average black metal band. And again, it feels like Aaron himself is also trying to adapt here as his vocals sound relatively akin to that of Nergal. Overall the song shows that the band are more than capable of adapting and presenting this dark atmosphere in more than one style of writing.
Although this album does do many interesting things with atmosphere and takes inspiration from several different aspects of other metal genres, the main issues of the album occur when all of these elements that make certain tracks so good are overused. To understand what I mean by that, take a song like ’The Iron Gates’. It’s one of the most ambitious tracks on the album and it has some really interesting elements; an atmospheric opening with a synth choir, a Gojira feel due to the guitars and drums interlocking rhythmically, and there’s even a section where they use blast beats, keys and synth to create that atmospheric black metal vibe from ‘Rapture’. Although I would normally praise a band for incorporating all of this into one song, sadly, most of these elements miss the mark. The atmospheric opening is let down by relatively weak guitar work making the opening sound unfinished, the Gojira feel is okay, but nothing like as good as it is in songs like ‘Monster’, and the black metal atmosphere is guilty of over-using the synth and over-simplifying the guitars. Overall it just feels like the song needed a little more time in the oven as it could have been one of the best tracks on the album had they gone back and refined some of the more underwhelming details. On the other hand, some songs are guilty of the exact opposite, not having enough elements from other genres. ‘The Sound of Letting You Go’ is probably the best example of this, where although there are indeed some nice ideas (including a really good breakdown) the song feels confused. It sounds as though the track is meant to act as a softer song to give the listeners a break from the heavier tracks and keep it fairly typical of the band, but the lack of interesting riffing and fairly simple rhythm combine badly to make the song very forgettable. That being said there are songs that don’t have much influence from other genres, such as ‘Down’, but that song, for example, has fleshed out riffing, good structure and interesting tonality. So it’s not by any means the end of the world if a song on the album doesn’t reference another genre as the band are more than capable of making a song that is characteristic of itself.
Betraying the Martyrs as a band has always been an evolving band, often keeping one step ahead of the times and making sure their music is up to date and Rapture is no exception. They’ve done what so many bands have done and taken influences from other genres and styles to create one of the bands most varied albums to date. I think what particularly highlights this album and separates it from the other albums is the atmosphere though. It’s something that they haven’t concentrated as much on before and for the most part they pull it off really well here. And although the album obviously isn’t without its flaws, overall it shows that the band are still on top of their game, producing a melting pot of different genres, showing off their incredible musicianship as they always do, and creating such a poignant atmosphere to top it all off.
Highlights: ‘Eternal Machine’, ‘Rapture’, ‘Parasite’, ‘Monster’
Lowlights: ‘The Iron Gates’, ‘The Sound of Letting You Go’
Betraying the Martyrs Rapture available now on Sumerian Records (which can be purchased here).
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