Whitechapel with Chelsea Grin, The Acacia Strain, and Netherwalker

Hymns in Dissonance, indeed: “No holds barred; there is nothing nice about HID, from the riffs to the lyrics to the overall vibe of the album,” states guitarist Alex Wade. “We attempted to write our heaviest album to date. We wanted to put out something that was shockingly menacing and brutal.” “The album follows the story of a cultist who is gathering worthy people to join his cult,” Wade furthers, “and there are moments in the storyline where the cult followers are singing an evil hymn to open a portal for the head cultist to enter.” The band’s dynamic, brutal musicality serves as a soundtrack to the compelling lyrical story that vocalist Phil Bozeman vividly imagines. “Hymns in Dissonance is a mockery of the true nature of what hymns are,” Bozeman explains. “Hymns are melodious and harmonious. Dissonance is the opposite of melody and harmony. Dissonance represents evil. The tracks on the record are the hymns, which represent the seven deadly sins, beginning from Track 3 to Track 10. Tracks one and two are the introduction.” The lineup’s timely and terrifying vision was first unveiled in Fall 2024 with the single “A Visceral Retch” inciting frenzied fans to call the song “a version of Whitechapel we have never heard before. Can’t explain how absolutely goddamn brutal this song is. This is a total dream come true.” The title track is the LP’s second single. Whitechapel, who formed in Knoxville, Tennessee, in 2006, has seen the core lineup—vocalist Phill Bozeman; guitarists Ben Savage, Zach Householder and Alex Wade; bassist Gabe Crisp—intact since 2007, with the exception of the drummer Brandon Zackey, who has been playing with the band since 2022. While Hymns in Dissonance follows 2021’s Kin chronologically, the new album is actually somewhat of a sequel to This is Exile thematically, the three-word title Hymns in Dissonance representing that correlation. Whitechapel started writing for the new album at Householder’s studio in June of 2023, following the band’s headlining tour for The Valley. Whitechapel stuck to a strict weekday schedule, the structure allowing for maximum creativity and minimum burnout. Householder produced Hymns in Dissonance, which allowed the musicians to seamlessly switch gears from preproduction to recording the full album without skipping a beat. The guitarist shadowed producer Mark Lewis a lot over the last five Whitechapel albums and bringing that influence inside the band is a “full circle moment for Householder and Whitechapel. “It’s cool that we can be self-sufficient and produce a record of this magnitude ourselves; not a lot of bands can say that.” Every detail on HID matters. “With song sequencing we like to try to make our albums as dynamic as possible,” Wade says. “We like to give the records a roller-coaster effect toggling the energy of the tracks up and down to keep the listener interested.” It was likewise critical that the album art tied into the music in a visceral, provocative way, or has Bozeman put it, “something simple but unsettling with a very classic feel. But not over the top with too many things to look at.” Guitarist Savage mocked up ideas for an eerie mask that would represent the cult leader in the album’s story. Whitechapel chose artist Rob Borbas, the European tattoo artist known as “Grind Design,” to create the cover. “He specializes in dark/cryptic tattoos, and we felt he would be able to take Savage’s idea with the mask and bring it to life,” Whitechapel explains. “He certainly met our expectations with a dark, evil, ominous piece that makes you question ‘what is that?’ when you look at it. We wanted the cover to be mysterious until you know more about the story of the album and how the cover applies to it.” Hymns in Dissonance sees the band reinventing themselves, going darker, deeper and heavier. While the songs all stand powerfully on their own, the throughline Bozeman says that “more than likely there will be a tour where we play the album from front to back.” Longtime fans will detect hints of the past within the brutality. To wit: the riff-tastic “Hate Cult Ritual” is the only song on the album with Drop A tuning, the tuning the first three Whitechapel albums used. Additionally, the Hymns in Dissonance chapter in Bozeman’s life finds the frontman living through his “past times,” or as he states, “the music that brought me here. Brutal, dark, aggressive, heavy music. Death metal, black metal, speed metal, etc. I truly believe that your roots call you back at some point in your life and this is that point in my life.” Vocally, the recording process allowed Bozeman to achieve all his goals. “Recording was on our time, so if I wasn't feeling it on a certain day, then I’d just stop, reset and go again the following day. I honed in more on the progression of the screaming vocals that I’m known for,” the singer says. “I really reworked my high vocals and tried some new different types of tones with my voice. Basically, a new-age feel to a classic sound.” At this stage in the game, the name Whitechapel commands the ultimate respect. Already sitting on one of the most enviable catalogs in contemporary metal, in 2019 they dropped The Valley, highlighting a confident evolution in their sound and standing as a true landmark release that sets a new standard for the genre. With Bozeman exploring childhood trauma on 2019’s The Valley, it was their darkest release to-date. But with its 2021 successor, Kin, the story was darker still. With those chapters of Bozeman’s life exorcised lyrically, Hymns in Dissonance mines a darkness that’s not lyrically personal. And, says Wade, “I don't think HID follows Kin musically at all. If anything, it's the polar opposite. For this album it was fun to be able to just let loose and write ignorantly heavy music again. This album stands on its own,” Wade concludes. “Phil was able to create a fresh story to write about, which, in turn, helped us write music with a fresher sound.” Lineup: Phil Bozeman — Vocals Ben Savage — Guitar Zach Householder — Guitar Alex Wade — Guitar Gabe Crisp — Bass Brandon Zackey — Drums Hymns in Dissonance track listing: Hymns in Dissonance song by song: Prisoner 666 – This song was the first song we wrote and musically feels like the 2014/2021 Whitechapel morphing back into the 2006-2010 Whitechapel and continuing the 2006-2010 era for the rest of the album. This is the beginning of the narrative of "the last living son" of the Father of Lies coming to be. Relinquishing his faith, religion, burning the church and serving Satan, who he believes is his father. (Phil Bozeman) It’s got heavy “Saw is the Law” vibes in the opening groove, it’s like we took that song and made it more epic and melodic. The “beats per minute” are pretty similar to Saw. (Alex Wade) Hymns in Dissonance – It’s about building his cult of followers. Only the most heinous and vile people on the planet. Showing their devotion to their lord. Committing horrible acts and the leader showcasing his power and his purpose. To commit the seven cardinal sins to resurrect their lord. To replace divinity with evil. (Phil Bozeman) Mostly written by Phil on guitar, it has a few riffs and tweaks thrown in by the rest of us. He can churn out some pummeling riffs and it’s one of the best songs on the album because he had a vision for the whole song with the riffs and vocals. It’s tuned to Drop G which we have been using since the self-titled LP, but the ending breakdown shifts down one whole step to Drop F, which we have never done before. Having the final breakdown shift lower than the rest of the song really helped the end have the crushing feeling it needed. (Alex Wade) Diabolic Slumber - Sin of Sloth: watching people die and not doing anything to save them. Falling into a deep sleep while the world tears itself apart. No empathy, no feeling. Pure apathy. (Phil Bozeman) This was a fun song to put together and another one that felt like it just kind of wrote itself. We were just riffing at Zach’s and each part just came one after the other. I like it because it reminds me more of our songwriting back in the day on Somatic Defilement where we had parts that went back-to-back vs a more verse/chorus/bridge type repeating structure. It leaves the listener wondering what is coming next. (Alex Wade) A Visceral Retch - Sin of Gluttony: mammoth demons constantly gorging themselves and excreting. True followers will gorge on the excrement or their fellow man. A spectacle of entertainment for the cult and finding true devotion to them through horrific means. The path to true madness and impurity. (Phil Bozeman) Mostly written by Zach, who loves Cannibal Corpse (who doesn’t) and I think that shows in the riffing of this song. Just huge grotesque death metal riffs. It also utilizes some pitch shifting on a whammy pedal where we drop the guitars down and octave and you can hear them dive bombing down. I think that gave it a unique sound that not a lot of death metal songs have. The end also shifts down in tuning to Drop F like the end of Hymns which adds to the brutality to close it out. (Alex Wade) Ex Infernis - We wanted an evil, ritualistic-sounding instrumental to bring in the next track and Ex Infernis is Latin for "from below/hell." (Phil Bozeman) Zach created this interlude track using an orchestral drum software. He was able to program every part, from the stick clicks to the banging timpani drums and the monk chants. This track is to symbolize the beginning of the ritual the cultists do to open the portal for the Cult Leader. (Alex Wade) Hate Cult Ritual - Sin of Wrath: this song portrays the overwhelming rage of the cult. Planting the seed of evil within the core of the earth to be birthed from soil. All the rivers and oceans are diseased which nourishes their unborn lord. Roaming the earth and murdering all opposers. (Phil Bozeman) This is the only song utilizing our older tuning, Drop A; the rest of the album is in Drop G. I was inspired a lot by Bloodbath when writing this one and felt like Phil nailed the vibe vocally contributing to that. There is a ferocity and evilness to this track that I think really sets it apart from the rest. No breakdowns, just pummeling riffs with evil chanting over the choruses. (Alex Wade) The Abysmal Gospel - Sin of Pride: portraying the acts of arrogance and superiority. Mocking the divine. The transformation from human to beast. (Phil Bozeman) This was interesting to create because it felt like a mash-up of riffs that just worked. The intro was written kind of randomly and it was so heavy we were trying to find a place to use it and decided “why not have it open this song then kick straight into the punk/grind riff? It’s pretty diverse, with influences of slam, grind, and melodic metal. We threw it all together and it just worked. (Alex Wade) Bedlam - Sin of Envy: in the album This is Exile there was a character "Daemon" who is the brother of the cult leader. This song is him admitting his jealousy of him and defiling his rotting corpse. This is the POV of him and his dead brother who is eternally trapped in his own dead body and can still feel and hear everything but cannot move or escape. Bedlam is chaos, confusion and turmoil which describes this scene. (Phil Bozeman) We wrote this intentionally as a quick, fun, ass-beater type song. It’s pretty relentless with the chunky slamming riffs, but then also has a melodic and catchy chorus as the hook. (Alex Wade) Mammoth God - Sin of Greed: this portrays the stealing of land and wealth. Conquering every inch of the world. A god of avarice. So overtaken with greed that he wants to kill himself so he can claim to have slayed every god. (Phil Bozeman) I always felt like this was the “true metal” song of the album, nothing about it really says ‘Deathcore’ to me. It’s an intense track with a lot of dark melody and a killer solo toward the end. Savage added a little ‘rock roll’ flair to the solo that I think makes it unique compared to standard metal solos. (Alex Wade) Nothing is Coming for Any of Us - Sin of Lust: the earth is bearing his child. The earth is portrayed as a person, a woman bearing the child, their lord. He does not love who is bearing the child. The rest I would rather the listener take away what they will. It's my favorite song on the album; the flow of the song, the vocal variety and lyrical content is what drives me towards that one. Plus, the ending is just very beautiful but unsettling. (Phill Bozeman) On every album we try to close it out with the most epic song from the 10 we’ve written. It’s kind of our signature to leave the listener with one last “wow” before the album ends. I think this song accomplishes that. Phil wrote most of the riffs on this one too, which I think contributed to it being one of the best on the album. The ending melodies were written by Savage, closing the album in a perfect cathartic way. (Alex Wade)