THE BEAST

With their latest album, 2021's "Kin", Whitechapel further cemented their maturation beyond the realm of deathcore, a change that had started with 2019's "The Valley".

The inclusion of clean vocals and influences from prog and groove metal marked the band's departure from the signature soung that made them legends in the scene.

In a new interview with The Garza Podcast , frontman Phil Bozeman talked about the band's change in sound, saying (via Metal Injection ):

"We've always been heavy, but not like the first three albums heavy. Like that grimy, you hear it and you're just like 'fuck, that is disgusting.' When you get older, when you're in a band, you experiment and you want to try something new, and you do it and you get that out. I'm proud of it. It doesn't mean that I hate it. It's just that I'm feeling very nostalgic. Your roots call you back eventually sometime in your life. That's just the mode I'm in. I just want to make something menacing and evil and just like, scary."

Something that Whitechapel kept regardless of genre was their lyrics' emotional weight and dark atmosphere, dealing with difficult topics like death, grief, and tales of abuse, and then translating these into intense live experiences.

Bozeman also shared his thoughts on the current state of metal, and how not many bands are interested in being serious with their music:

"That's one thing with the internet nowadays. Nothing is scary and serious anymore. Everything's a meme, everything's a joke. I miss like the scariness of shit. [Late Suicide Silence vocalist Mitch Lucker] was scary live. Terrifying, and none of that really happens anymore. The only bands that really kind of still have that are like Meshuggah or Behemoth . If you watch Behemoth, you're not gonna meme that band. That band's terrifying live. I just want that back. Now everything's just like, in the comments section just who can come up with the funniest joke. I'm not saying that I don't like to laugh. Of course I do, but when it comes to music I like the seriousness of shit. I like serious, scary… whenever I watch a band, I want to feel intimidated.

"That's not my personality I'm not like a wacky cartoon noises guy. I like fuckin' just evil, menacing, terrifying, scary, intimidating kind of shit. Just dark. I love shit like that. I've always loved shit like that."

Via UltimateGuitar