Much has been made of deathcore's position as a maligned subgenre. The supposed combination of death metal and metalcore often fell short as it combined all the wrong parts, eschewing the technical aspect of death metal in favour of too much low end, and taking the simplicity of the metalcore breakdown and stretching it out over a whole song. While the UK's Martyr Defiled sidestep that problem, a tonal disconnect causes No Hope No Morality to not hit quite as hard as it could.
The more nimble, melodic parts occasionally approach happy territory, a jarring feeling when you consider much of the album's low-end sounds like it's coming from the bowels of Hell. The sung chorus in "Neverender" is a prime example of this, as is the fleet-footed "No Hope," whose counterpart, "No Morality," serves as an example of the formula done right. The album's capstone comes in the form of "Of Sheep and Swine," which sounds soul-crushing and avoids falling victim to the aforementioned problem, or another occasionally found and reminiscent of Thy Art Is Murder: an overdependence on the low end.
Despite any problems, No Hope No Morality is a solid embodiment of its title and is as good as deathcore gets.
(Siege of Amida)The more nimble, melodic parts occasionally approach happy territory, a jarring feeling when you consider much of the album's low-end sounds like it's coming from the bowels of Hell. The sung chorus in "Neverender" is a prime example of this, as is the fleet-footed "No Hope," whose counterpart, "No Morality," serves as an example of the formula done right. The album's capstone comes in the form of "Of Sheep and Swine," which sounds soul-crushing and avoids falling victim to the aforementioned problem, or another occasionally found and reminiscent of Thy Art Is Murder: an overdependence on the low end.
Despite any problems, No Hope No Morality is a solid embodiment of its title and is as good as deathcore gets.