Band's List Deathcore As Blood Runs Black Allegiance

Deathcore can be best defined as the fusion of metalcore and death metal. Like metalcore, it originated in the United States, but couldn't reach the heights of popularity when compared to metalcore. Deathcore is much underrated. But for some metalheads, its something much more than metalcore - extremity & brutality, a thing common metalcore bands lack. In comes As Blood Runs Black (ABRB), a Deathcore band from L.A., California.

Firstly, if you are a fan of extreme metal and breakdowns, you won't give a damn whether ABRB is a Black Dahlia Murder clone band, which many metalheads may suggest. I personally feel ABRB is much more brutal and melodic than BDM. Allegiance is the debut full-length album of the band, produced by the record company Mediaskare. The production is polished, the instruments and the vocals can be heard clearly & distinctly.

The Intro track is short and straight to the point, showing you the glimpse of what the album holds. The roughly 1 minute track has even got a breakdown. The brutality begins with the second track "In Dying Days" and from then onwards its full on breakdowns, growls and screams. There are multiple stand-outs of this album, "In Dying Days", "My Fears Have Become Phobias", "Hester Prynne". The songs tend to grow on you mainly because of its melodic touch in between those brutal riffs and neck-cracking breakdowns. There is tremendous use of blastbeats. The doublebass kicks in brilliantly in the song "My Fears have become Phobias". The song is featured in the album's official music video.

There is even a melodic solo in the song "The Beautiful Mistake" that's worth a mention. The only thumbs-down in the acoustic track "Pouring Reign" which could have been completely eliminated from the album. Though it serves the purpose of an interlude between the two halves of the album. The lyrics are well-written, much to my surprise, here are some lines from the song "My Fears have Become Phobias" :

"Wasting all that's left of a day, watching time just fly away on his own.
Dreams are surpassing him by, why not live life to its fullest and give it a try!
How much will does one simply have to conquer what he's become?
And how many others can say my fears have become phobias!"

Allegiance is a brilliant album from these young guys of L.A. Their brutality in the songs is commendable. The breakdowns can easily give you a bad ache in the necks. However, producing such a superb album can make things tough for the band in future. As a fan of ABRB, I really hope they could keep up their standard of playing in the future.

As Blood Runs Black is a Deathcore band from Los Angeles, Ca. formed in 2003. Three years later, on June 6, 2006 (666) they released Allegiance. Allegiance is a beautiful masterpiece with guitar riffs that I've never heard before, never mind I have, but it's still a powerful kind of music. Leche's drumming on this piece is the most amazing, and the fastest kind that I've ever heard, people say Lars Ulrich is bad ass, he's got nothing on Leche (I like Metallica, and Lars is a pretty good drummer).

I really like how Chris Blair can change the way he does his vocals. He can scream, then do a low-pitched kind of scream or yell, and then do some cool inhaled growls.

Even though this album is amazing, I don't see how the 5th track Pouring Reign goes along with the rest of it. Maybe it was to calm down the listener and get them ready for the second half of Allegiance (which are the best parts). Maybe, oh well I like it.

Back to the drums, amazing double bass at the end of My Fears Have Become Phobias, the halfway point in Legends Never Die, and every other song on this album. No one can drum like Leche can.

I may not have the CD itself, but I have this on my Ipod so I know what I'm talking about. If you can find this CD, and you haven't heard it before, buy it and enjoy, you will not be disappointed.