Band:	Winds Of Plague
Album:	Resistance
Style:	Deathcore, Symphonic metal
Release date:	October 29, 2013
A review by:	ScreamingSteelUS

01. Open The Gates Of Hell
02. Say Hello To The Undertaker
03. Sewer Mouth
04. Left For Dead
05. One Foot In The Grave
06. Time To Reap
07. United Through Hatred
08. Good Ol' Fashion Bloodbath
09. No Man Is My Master
10. Snake Eyes

With metal like this, who needs pop music?

Now, I'm hardly a fan of deathcore. It is irresponsible of any music fan to write off a genre entirely, and I try to avoid this; it's just that I've found very few reasons to give deathcore much of my time. For this same reason, it would be inappropriate under most circumstances for me to review a deathcore album, since I am almost guaranteed to dislike it. Winds Of Plague, however, apparently play something called "symphonic deathcore," which is an interesting enough label that I could give it a fair shot. In the spirit of expanding my horizons, I listened.

What this so-called "symphonic deathcore" entails are a few passages here and there that leave me with vague impressions of Septicflesh or Fleshgod Apocalypse, but which are never developed to fruition. Just as the piano is in the midst of constructing that elegant, gothic feeling that it so well exudes when paired with dark atmosphere and especially heavy guitars, the song breaks down into a breakdown. Now and then some violin-ish keyboards cut across the chugging to do their thing, and you get the occasional choral effect, but at most it's a seconds-long passage in the background that often does not coalesce well. "Open The Gates Of Hell" had me going for a minute; it starts out with a promising intro, perhaps the only piece of music on this album I would call legitimately symphonic - but then the chugging kicks in. As per the rules of deathcore, Winds Of Plague have allotted themselves two chords for the majority of the album. Some songs have a more hardcore feeling, with raw-throated self-aggrandizing taking precedence over death growls in places.

As far as I can tell, this album's most positive quality is that it is short. To be fair, though, there were several parts that I enjoyed. "Say Hello To The Undertaker" has a pretty cool chorus, and there is actually some pleasing guitar work to be found on songs like that and "United Through Hatred." Yes, most of the guitar is the typical chugging on open strings until people pay attention, but there are a couple of refreshing solos and some riffs that probably overdrew deathcore's collective creativity bank. If they developed these parts more, the music would stand out much more and be well worth a few spins.

Winds Of Plague is not the worst deathcore band out there. "Say Hello To The Undertaker," "Snake Eyes," and "Left For Dead" are not half-bad. I question the accuracy of the term "symphonic deathcore"; what this sounds like is basically "deathcore with keyboards." Is that the only requirement for something to be "symphonic"? Perhaps to some, but I was expecting more variety in song structure. Resistance is in some ways better than I was expecting, but in some ways worse. Overall, it's not terrible, but I do believe that once is enough.