It Dies Today – The Caitiff Choir

Don’t you hate it when a band comes out with a slightly new look at a music genre and hits it back, only to be followed by countless copy cat acts bringing down the market and flooding it with overproduced replicas that really offer no solid addition to the music scene other then trying to cash in on a trend? Well, hardcore and metal-core are probably the newest genres to hit that problem, and everywhere you look know you see a new album from “the new face of metal” or from “the band that will change your opinion on music as you know it”; and never being a fan of the whole hardcore/metal-core genre, I can’t even begin to fathom as to why all these copy cat bands are coming up and releasing albums. Sure, there are a few decent metal-core albums that will receive the occasional spin in my CD player, but sadly, The Caitiff Choir by It Dies Today isn’t one of those.

The Caitiff Choir brings together all the right makings for a solid metal-core album, but overuse everything. The screaming vocals become ear shattering and you want to skip over it nearly instantly. Like many screaming vocals, they are pretty much indecipherable. But not to worry, you’re not missing much. The lyrics on the album aren’t anything special, but a rather quite juvenile and cliche (This is a call to arms for all who recognize romance as, as a dying scene. Who’ll take it to their graves: This is a call to arms for all who hold this sacrament close. – A Threnody For Modern Romance). The best part of the album is when they throw away with the constant screaming and actually sing for a bit; like in The Radiance, which only has one small section of screaming. Then, although it still sounds fairly generic, it is finally possible to listen too without wanting to skip over it. Maybe, if they had the singing vocals as the main set of pipes, with the occasional scream added here and there, then the album would receive a much high grade.

Musically, they are hard and heavy hitting with uncompromising riffs and heavy head banging melodies; and although some fans of Atreyu, Eighteen Visions or Killswitch Engage may truly enjoy It Dies Today, the eleven song album really provides no real listening pleasure for me. The screaming vocals are overused and annoying, the metal-core riffs and breakdowns are the same on every song, and it will rarely, if ever, find its way into my CD player in the future. Let’s just hope the onslaught of metal-core bands come to an end soon.