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Walls of Jericho - The Bound Feed the Gagged
"The Bound Feed the Gagged" is the debut studio album from Metalcore/Hardcore band Walls of Jericho. Before Metalcore really took off as a genre when bands started to take more elements from melodic death metal and use more melody, the older bands of the genre were a lot closer to Hardcore Punk hence why these days many are probably called Metallic Hardcore instead.
Walls of Jericho certainly fits into Metallic Hardcore, taking influence from Hatebreed and Slayer. You'll get crunching guitar, relentless thrashing riffs, rapid drum attacks, spit-fire vocals, and the occasional breakdown. One of the most punishing moments in the album is at the end of 'Misanthropy', which just beats the listener over the head with a fast crushing stomp of guitar and Candace Kucsulain's spitting vocal assault. At times her vocals actually remind me of Mille Petrozza of Kreator. One song on the album that sounds completely different is 'Angel', which is a very beautiful classical guitar piece with soft vocals and it provides a nice little break before the last blistering track.
Other favorite/standout songs for me are 'Playing Soldier Again', 'Home is Where the Heart is', 'Beneath the Exterior', and the final song 'Inevitable Repercussions'. 'Playing Soldier Again' especially, which hits you in the face as soon as you put on the album with crushing vocals, drums, and riffs. The final song makes sure that you go out the way you came in sounding even heavier in contrast with the mellow song coming before it.
Overall, "The Bound Feed the Gagged" may be short, only clocking in at about 23 minutes, but it's one killer debut full-length. While not as consistently memorable as their debut EP, it's still a really great relentless album. I highly recommend this album to any fans of Hatebreed, Metallic Hardcore, and fans of Slayer who enjoy hardcore as well. Hope you found this review helpful.
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