Named after a murderous London district our friends Whitechapel return with a familial flavour with album number eight ‘Kin’. The cover gives us a ‘Close Encounters’ feel, an other-worldly, mysterious, alien quality that sits very well with song titles like ‘Orphan’ and ‘Lost Boy’. The story resumes where ‘The Valley’ left us, and although the themes and threads may be similar, there are still elements that remain unresolved and therefore a revisit is necessary.
The search for family, familiarity and ultimately home, but alongside all this we have the search for oneself, facing our own challenges and frailties, confronting our own reality, undertaking a journey of assimilation and clarity. We open with ‘I Will Find You; a candid effort in the ongoing voice in your head, cluttering your thoughts and causing friction and fractures, this is part of the character of this record. Emotions run high, take a peek at ‘A Bloodsoaked Symphony’ and witness a ritual to resurrect those that have gone before us. A corruption that is as evil as the story it tells, good fighting evil at a time when evil rules.
The triple headed beast that is the guitar section, combined with clean vocals, guttural musings and, and deathly blast beats, it’s all good my friends. a ground shaking tussle of identities, raging anger and anxieties all vying to be heard, and a mystical, magical, subtlety that soothes and understands what you are going through.
‘Anticure’ is the ballad and damn is it good, heavy, uncompromising, taut and yet you run towards it like you’ve found water in the dessert. Our lives have been reduced to a barren, abandoned prospect, it is time to quench our thirst at the fountain of Whitechapel.
Each song singes your skin to leave blisters that will never heal and yet you yearn for the reminders of a time that you were mercilessly hurt, to the point you thought you would never recover.
Holding onto trauma will hold you back in your life, we all need to learn to let go, this is a great place to start. The single ‘Orphan’ gives us the haunting words ‘this case of flesh we call our home’ so scathing and unforgiving. The wisdom and torment continue with more penetrative words for example in ‘History Is Silent’ we see ‘what’s it like to be where the grass is always green’. I’m sure most of have wondered this at some point when our lives become too much for us.
Torn between your kith and kin, a scenario that is as old as the hills, but you can find some peace here, this is a gift from the broken, for the broken, so please take your seat in the Whitechapel.
Azra Pathan
Whitechapel – Kin out now via Metal Blade