Music reviews. CD reviews. Critically hip!

1) "All Out War pretty much invented the metalcore subgenre back in the mid-90s, and with, Assassins in the House of God, they reclaim the crown from the legions of imitators peddling whiny watered down, emo-laden versions, many of whom can be found among the band’s labelmates.”

2) “All Out War tread oh-so-familiar ground on Assassins in the House of God. Their first new album
in 5 years pretty much finds them doing the same thing they’ve done since their 1996 debut kickstarted the metalcore subgenre.”

Two different ways of looking at the new All Out War CD, and frankly, I couldn’t decide which one to
go with, because they’re both true. Here’s the thing about that second statement, though – even though it’s familiar ground, its space that All Out War absolutely owns. Their brand of metalcore doesn’t mess around, it’s unrelentingly heavy, it takes no prisoners, and the result is a crushing disc. That just happens to be pretty much identical to everything they’ve done before. C’est la vie, I guess. When that style happens to be thrash infused with hardcore-style vocals, I’ll take it. Listening to this album, the band Slayer came to mind more than a few times, both in musical and lyrical terms, although Erik Carillo and Mike Score’s presentation comes across as more intelligent, perhaps due to the latter’s day job as a high school history teacher.

The lyrics in the liner notes are presented in paragraph form, with no demarcation for verse and choruses. It’s an appropriate format, as Mike Score’s vocals attack pretty much at one speed, a full-on rasping shout, which occasionally gets monotonous. What saves this from becoming a problem is the fact that Assassins in the House of God sounds absolutely fantastic, especially over a pair of headphones. Erin Farley’s production is absolutely stellar, with Lou Iuzini’s and Erik Carillo’s low end having as much impact as the twin guitars from Jim Bremer and Jim Antonelli.

The majority of the songs stick to a mid-paced thrash mode (i.e. faster than usual rock modes, not quite up to death metal rpm). Some of the best songs in the CD come when they add a faster, death metal-tinge to the basic thrash/hardcore proceedings, as in Behind the Crescent and the Cross. That track features a short, effective guitar solo (in surprisingly short supply on the disc) highlighting Score’s rants against Islamic and Christian misleaders, "Behind the Crescent and behind the Cross millions have suffered and countless lives have been lost.” All Out War does their basic milieu justice, too, as the title track slows it down during the chorus just long enough for Score to pound his message into your skull.

Bottom line, we’ve heard this before, but it was good the first few times around, and it’s good, thrash-infused hardcore metal now. All Out War, and their Assassins in the House of God don’t do 'subtle’ particularly well, but they have ‘brutally effective’ mastered.