There’s plenty of talk about the new breed of extreme metal bands making their mark on the current metal scene these days. But in all honesty, few of them truly resonate with me due to their lack of identity (so many of them sound so alike) and their unwillingness to try their hand at something adventurous.

But one act that has managed to capture a little more of my attention than a lot of others is Knoxville-based death metal/deathcore act Whitechapel.

Whitechapel, who are named after the London district where the infamous serial killer Jack The Ripper made his mark, first entered the scene with their debut full-length release The Somatic Defilement last year through Siege Of Amida Records. Despite the album’s mixed reception, the band was soon picked up by Metal Blade Records for their sophomore release This Is Exile, and for obvious reasons.

Armed with a new line-up (guitarist Zach Householder replaced Brandon Cagle back in late 2007 after Cagle’s tragic motorcycle accident, and joins vocalist Phil Bozeman, guitarists Alex Wade and Ben Savage, bassist Gabe Crisp and drummer Kevin Lane), Whitechapel have improved quite a bit in the last twelve months, with This Is Exile a vast improvement on anything offered up on their debut.

The band certainly don’t waste time getting straight into the thick of things, with the opening track “Father Of Lies” starting off with a battering of fast paced drumming, deep growled vocals and a swirling mass of tight knit interwoven riffing. Sound-wise, Whitechapel manage to incorporate a lot of different textures into their music, with a mix of melodic death metal, modern extreme thrash and grinding elements all being thrown into the mix. But while it may sound a little confused and forced sounding, Whitechapel manage to make it all sound natural and pretentious free, and not to mention brutal the whole time.

The title track, “This Is Exile” incorporates the core element of the group’s sound with the use of breakdowns helping emphasise the heavier side of the three pronged guitar attack, while on “Possession” and “Somatically Incorrect,” the subtle Meshuggah influences are drawn out by the guitarists angular riffing.

Instrumentals “Death Becomes Him” and “Of Legions” (which features some industrialised sound effects) add some well placed diversity in and around the album to counteract some of the more extreme efforts on the album (such as “Exalt” and “Deamon (The Procreated)”), while the epic “Messiahbolical” draws together the bands influences and varying characters into one huge grand finale.

Whitechapel certainly aren’t reinventing the deathcore genre with This Is Exile, but where they succeed over others is their ability to keep things interesting, varied and memorable. And it’s those very qualities that separate the leaders from the followers.

www.whitechapelmetal.com