The Acacia Strain – Failure Will Follow
May 12th, 2023
Deathcore / Sludge Metal
Rise Records
Albany, New York, USA
New York deathcore outfit The Acacia Strain are one of the longest running and consistently great outfits in the subgenre since its inception, at least according to me. Deathcore has always been a bit of a hit or miss genre for me but these guys have always drawn me in with their particular breed of nihilistic, monolithic, slow-as-hell approach to the music. With Failure to Follow the band has gone even slower and sludgier with the material on here for what is perhaps one of the best entries into their entire discography.
This album boasts only three tracks, yet its total runtime clocks in at just under 40 minutes, so you know that these songs are gunning to be long-winded, slugging behemoths of heaviness. That’s pretty much about what you get on these three cuts. Each song drags on for well over the ten minute marker as each song descends into further depths of depression and oppressiveness.
Don’t let that fool you into thinking there’s no variety on this thing though. While the first track, “Pillar of Salt”, is the bleakest of the three cuts, featuring long, drawn out chugs and chords backed by atmospheric guitar passages in the background as well as an absurdly low tuning, reminding me of Primitive Man, the next song is anything but. “Bog Walker” is easily the most stoner-riffic song I’ve ever heard come from this band. The main riff, followed by the cleanly sung vocals and obscene amounts of feedback make me feel like I need to take the biggest bong rip in recorded history while listening to this thing. It’s got to be one of my favourite tracks that The Acacia Strain has ever released.
This album also features a few featured artists. Dylan Walker from Full of Hell and the experimental artist iRis.EXE both appear on the first track. While I often feel like guest features from other harsh vocalists don’t really add all that much to music with this style of singing, I think iRis.EXE’s performance with the clean vocals at the end help seal “Pillar of Salt” as a a melancholic and bleak piece of nihilistic bluntness. It’s absolutely shameful that Rise Records never credited her work on this song on the album’s release. Go fuck yourselves Rise Records.
The album also features the brutally low vocals of Primitive Man frontman Ethan McCarthy on “Basin of Vows” as well as Sam Sawyer from Your Pain is Endearing on “Bog Walker”. Like I just said, I don’t really think these guys add a whole lot to the overall sound of the songs that frontman Vincent Bennett wasn’t already bringing to the table. I get that the point of this featuring, especially in Sawyer’s case, is to help bring these bands a new audience, which is commendable. I just don’t think they really bring much to the overall package of the music itself.
The production on this thing is fucking massive as well. There’s a seriously huge feeling to this album. Listening to it is akin to watching a colossal black monolith shooting up out of the ground, rising impossibly high in the air, imposing its will on the entire planet and letting everybody know that there is nothing in this life except the cold emptiness of the void. It’s terrifying in its heaviness, gripping you tight and refusing to let go.
Gargantuan in its build, and unwavering in its strength, this record is a fantastic piece of atmospheric deathcore that takes a great degree of influence from the band’s sludge metal contemporaries like the aforementioned Primitive Man. It’s cool to see this band try something new this late into their career while still maintaining that good ol’ Acacia Strain sound that they’ve been known for for so long. If you like either genre this is an album that’s worth checking out.
Final Verdict: 8/10
Great
Favourite Tracks:
“Bog Walker”
~ Akhenaten