Ichor

Benthic Horizon

Written by: PP on 20/12/2011 05:43:57

Ichor are a deathcore band from Trier, Germany, although pigeonholing them into that genre can be contested given their strong influence from the technical death metal and modern death metal scenes. But especially the latter is starting to merge so closely with deathcore that it's difficult to tell them apart, so elitist metal heads aren't going to like their new album "Benthic Horizon" any more if I call it a death metal album than if we simply refer to it as deathcore. Their logo speaks for itself anyway, and my guess is that their previous material sounded way more like generic deathcore than they do today.

Why is this important? Because it helps me describe exactly the kind of band Ichor are at this stage of their career. Like the newer produce of almost all prominent deathcore bands today, "Benthic Horizon" is the kind of borderline album dabbling between the two genres that you can expect from a young band that started out by playing deathcore, but then grew up and wanted to move towards a more mature death metal sound without upsetting their original fanbase. Call it a soft landing, if you will, but the career path of Ichor is following the exact route of bands like Carnifex, The Red Shore, and even Job For A Cowboy if you want to go back to the root cause of this evolutionary trend.

And like most of its brethren, its problem isn't its execution. The instruments are tight as fuck, and impress through technical flair and an absolutely devastating rhythm / percussion sections that leave no man standing. The production gives the sound a distinctly modern death metal flavor, but also chokes the expression by giving it a mechanical and unnatural sound. That is perhaps the biggest problem with Ichor: they sound like every single other deathcore-turned-death metal band you've heard in the last two years. They are virtually indistinguishable from the likes of The Red Shore, Carnifex, etc etc, despite clearly leaning on Behemoth for inspiration. Curiously enough, on "Among The Swarm" they actually debut a recognizable clean tech death riff that isn't drowned in blast beats nor saturated distortion through and through. They need more of this, and less of car-crashing their way through brick walls on their future material if they want to make a lasting impression on the listener.

Download: Among The Swarm
For the fans of: Hour Of Penance, The Red Shore, Job For A Cowboy
Listen: Myspace

Release date 24.10.2011
Siege Of Amida

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