Despite it not being a secret that deathcore is far from my favorite genre, I have grown fonder of it lately, and have quite some appreciation for it being in a much better position than I predicted when I first came in contact with it and thought it would be a passing fad. And while I don't pay much attention to newer deathcore bands or deep cuts, it feels like some of the biggest deathcore acts are just now coming out with their best material. Fit For An Autopsy is one of those. And I didn't choose them just because for this year Whitechapel and Thy Art Is Murder were already reviewed, but also because The Sea Of Tragic Beasts gets better with every listen.
It is certainly an album that feels very distinct from the sound of deathcore in the past decade. There are still some artifacts of that sound (some occasional high pitch "squeeling" vocals and some guitar work), but for the most part The Sea Of Tragic Beasts builds upon the cleaner and more atmospheric sound that The Great Collapse had refined, but moving forward from it just slightly into a sound that warrants comparison to a band like Gojira. It's no surprise that everything from the artwork to the logo font seems so distinct from that MySpace style, as the music moved forward too. Packaging matters. I probably would've liked it even if it wasn't for the great cover art, but I doubt I would've taken it as seriously.
And A Sea Of Tragic Beasts is an album that deserves to be taken seriously, managing to create a sound that blends some of the core elements of deathcore with a much more atmospheric sound that, despite not being as heavy as deathcore is known to be, fosters its own heaviness and depth that goes beyond "Damn, this is heavy". From fast mosh-pit-worthy moments, to atmospheric Gojira-like moments, to colossally heavy breakdowns to threateningly slow clean moments, The Sea Of Tragic Beasts has a great dynamism in sound, that extends from the vocals to the other instruments. The vocals especially feel consistently good in their range and especially in their integration of cleans in a way that doesn't feel cheesy, dramatic or commercial that it sometimes can feel like in core music.
Technical, but not too much for its own good, a great deal of atmosphere and mood, well integrated cleans and an overall great dynamic sound. Quite a far cry from what I remember deathcore being in 2011.
