Album Review :
Every Knee Shall Bow - Slayers of Eden

Artist: Every Knee Shall Bow

Album: Slayers of Eden

Label: Rottweiler Records

Release Date: 03/12/2013

Reviewer: John Magelssen

Tracklisting:

1. Intro
2. Slayers of Eden
3. The Story Of…
4. No Longer Slaves
5. The Lion’s Teeth
6. Call Of Love
7. The Cleansing
8. His Mercies
9. Avenging The Martyrs
10. Vigilance Of Battle

Every Knee Shall Bow is a metalcore band with branching roots into other metal subgenres. The band consists of members aging from as young as thirteen up to twenty-six. Although their ages are diverse, they keep the sound solid with their album Slayers of Eden. One of things I noticed early on in the record is that the guitar tones remind me of Inhale, Exhale and The Famine. That alone made me enjoy the guitar riffs just a little more than I normally would. This album diverts away from a lot of popular trends that I think have hurt the genre a lot. There are not a lot of breakdowns in this album that draw away from the overall song and when they do use them, they don’t stand out in a manner that the only thing you remember is a heavy breakdown. They compliment their songs well and it does not feel generic at all.

Starting the record off with an instrumental build is pretty basic, but works effectively if you do it properly. The first track “Intro” does just that, but it leads into the first full track “Slayers of Eden” very well. The beginning of this song continues where the first track left off and builds the slower intro into a quick tempo using double pedals to increase the speed. The cadence (resolution of chord progression) comes and then the song truly blasts off into a fast tempo metalcore song with tremolo guitars harmonizing with each other and 32^nd note double pedaling. The breakdown in it reminds me of the days when I first got into this style of music and bands had simple, but very unique feelings built into each of them. This band reminds me of those days and puts a smile on my face. The song follows a simple structure, so there is not much else that I would tell you about.

This album continues with “The Story Of…” which starts off in a kind of heavy metal rock ballad. Just when you think the song is going to get fast, they slow it down even more than you think they would. A semi-generic breakdown happens, but like I said earlier, it does not take away from the song, but simply adds some dynamics to the song. There is a guitar solo that almost feels out of place, but the song would not feel the same without it. After listening to it several times, it becomes a part of the song that you look forward to hearing. It is a slower legato (musical term for fluid and connected) solo that uses a little bit of sweep picking. The end of the song goes into another breakdown to finish.

Slayers of Eden’s structure reminds me a lot of War of Ages’ first album. That is very strange because of how different a lot of the music is, but I cannot help thinking about WOA when I hear this record. Continuing on with the album, I will skip down to “The Cleansing”. The beginning of this song is pretty interesting because after a few measures of the guitar and drums playing a slow melody, it picks up instantly in a new, faster tempo. I love the lyrical content of the song. The song speaks about how unclean we can be and during that time, we think that we should distance ourselves away from God because we feel guilty and cannot bear to think of how He feels about us. Then the lyrics go into dialogue from God speaking, saying, “I’m here for you. I have a purpose for your life. Speak to me, I’ll show you what it is to live.” The backside of this song brings into focus that if we give our lives completely over to Christ, he will guide us with His own hands and we will have joy because we are in His hands. That is something anyone who believes in Christ can attest to and something that we all strive for in Him.

The next song I would like to tell you a little bit about is “His Mercies”. There are a few things in this song that made me smile. First off, the song starts off in a major key, which instantly makes one feel light hearted. The song modulates back and forth between major and minor several times. This is so awesome because it gives so much contrast to the song. Their “breakdown” in this is really awesome too because the guitars drop out except for small chugs at first which gives the bass and vocals a spotlight. It is really well done for such a young band and I am hopeful for future albums based off of what I have heard out of this kind of song. There is a solo that feels like it just fills space, but the spot right after it is pretty great because of the quadruplet trots from the guitars and drums. The drums start off by using different pieces of the kit for ornamentation before going into a full drumbeat with a constant quadruplet trot on the bass pedals. The song goes into kind of a basic metalcore song for a little while, but comes back to the “breakdown” that the bass and vocals shine so brightly in. This is a great song off of the album.

Overall: This is a very strong metal album for such a diverse band and I am really excited to see the progress of them. There were a few parts of the album I thought could use work. There are spots that do not feel full and some spots where the producer could have done some work. There was one spot in particular where the guitar solo is much louder than anything else and it took me by surprise at first. However, besides the few minor issues I had, the album is really well constructed and is a step in the right direction for this band. Every Knee Shall Bow will go far if they can keep progressing musically. Oh, and before I forget, I meant to mention how much I like the vocals on. They fit well with the music and I really like that the range is pretty wide. The highs are awesome and the lows feel natural and not too overdone.

RIYL: War of Ages, Slayer, Metallica, Inhale, Exhale, The Famine