Wisdom In Chains

The God Rhythm

Written by: MAK on 05/01/2016 16:12:54

I consider myself to be a fan of hardcore, yet somehow Wisdom In Chains have escaped my radar over the years. Then in comes “The God Rhythm”, which happens to be the Pennsylvania hardcore outfit’s sixth album to show me what I’ve been missing out on for the last twelve years.

I have always thought of hardcore to be that perfect balance between punk and metal, taking the raw energy and fun from one side and the relentless heaviness from the other. What I take from Wisdom In Chains is they stick to that middle line of combining both sides for the most part, taking elements that are clearly influenced from either metal or punk. Occasional riffs and guitar work on a track like “Fatherless” sound like they were taken from deathcore band Suicide Silence. Or there is the intro to “When We Were Young”, which is fiddly like some 80’s hair metal band showing off their technical prowess, the same song then leads into a chorus with anthemic gang vocals that emulates a mix of hardcore punk and Oi!.

Even though Wisdom In Chains formed the early 2000s, there is a distinctive old school aura about them. The 80s hardcore punk and 90s hardcore flow strongly throughout every song. What I like most about “The God Rhythm” is that it’s not like most albums that fall into similar categories. It isn’t one-directional in sound, emotion and general tone. For one, the opener track “People Die” is as gritty as the name suggests. The song is packed full of energy, distorted riffs, fast beats, and Mad Joe Black’s husky vocals that are backed by lots of gang shouts. “Songs To My Killer” follows a similar tone for about twenty seconds before the tempo drops dramatically and in a way sounds like it could have been a song originally written by The Offspring and then covered in a slightly hardcore manner: With Californian punk style riffs and lots of “woahs”, it is like melodic hardcore in its own way, without sounding whiney.

“The God Rhythm” isn’t distinctively any different or better than its predecessor “The Missing Links”, perhaps it is slightly more mature in places and a tad more experimental, other than that I doubt I would be able to tell the difference between what songs are on each album without a lot of listens. Though that isn’t to discredit “The God Rhythm”, Wisdom In Chains have created another album full of excitement and energy. Lots of dirty riffs, some great heavies and awesome sing-a-longs.

7

Download: Fatherless, People Die, Songs To My Killer, Violent Americans
For The Fans Of: Madball, Agnostic Front, Sick Of It All
Listen: facebook.com

Release date 30.06.2015
Fast Break! Records

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