Customer Reviews

Whispered Lies of Angels

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

When my friend first told me about Undying, and he said they were vegan, straightedge blackmetal, I thought it was a funny idea. Only wacky, generic, underground hardcore bands sang about being vegan (not eating animal products) and straightedge (not doing drugs)-- or so I thought. Blackmetal, on the other hand, tends to be self-absorbed, dark, mythical, overdramatic, and often orchestral, usually with epic lyrics and high-pitched, distorted guitars and screamed vocals. But it was a novelty for me and all my scene-crazy friends to see the two combined. When I first heard my friend's tape of Undying, I wasn't too surprised: It had melodic, fast-paced yet brutal guitar work, over-the-top, breathlessly screamed vocals, and... well, I had to take my friend's word for it that they were vegan and straightedge. But after riding in the car with it playing and really getting into the rhythmic, driving insanity of it, something about it stuck with me. The music of it was amazing. I borrowed his tape (which was made from another tape) and taped it myself, over old Hootie and the Blowfish I got in 5th grade and never listened to. Now, I listen to it almost regularly, and it's not hard to see how blackmetal and hardcore meet in Undying: I've read the lyrics, and they're quite intelligent and insightful, with historical and sociological tones. Yet the way they're presented- just look at the title of the album, Whispered Lies of Angels- is totally blackmetal. The music itself has rumbling, powerful, distorted guitar, with melodic, electric guitar cascading over it- but it's much more frugal than most blackmetal in its production, and because of the intense passion of the band, it's far more energetic and far more brutal, yet positive at the same time. Overall, it has an amazing, driving force, which is all the more amazing considering it's a bunch of hardcore kids from the East Coast, and not accomplished, rich heavy metal virtuosos. The only reason I don't give it 5 stars is that I literally can't tell one song from the next. I recommend this album to vegans, straightedgers, sociologists, hardcore kids, and all fans of punk and metal, as well as lumberjacks, small children, hockey players and rodents.

The only part of this album that I don't think is great, are the vocals. Other than that, I would have probably given this a 5 star rating. I'm not too strict about the vocals in music though, so I still enjoy them. This album is great. Get it. And vote for me, George W. Bush.

Words cannot even begin to express how damn good this album is! Musically its like blending Harvest, and Iron Maiden...how can anyone go wrong with that? Lyrically its right on the money, mostly based from the works of Daniel Quinn (Story of B, Ishmael..etc) If your at all into the metalcore genre, I highly suggest that you get this. Incredible stuff. XXX

It took a while for me to get into this cd since most of the metalcore released post 2001 has been full of chugging guitars, breakdowns and occasional clean singing sections.

This album is different because it contains much more of a classic metal influence with the guitars. There is still a hardcore influence, but overall its closer to pure metal then hardcore. And no lame MTV 2 singing

The overall sound is heavy and punishing and theres very little let up throughout the album except for an instrumental track.

Track 1 Echoes is probably my favourite track, its very fast and harsh and the guitars are played at breakneck speed, and near the end the music rings out before the singer screams "Where would are lives take us, what paths would we choose, without the whispered lies OF ANGELS" He screams the lsat bit. Very intense.

Track the title tracks is very good also.

The only bad thing is the production, which isnt very good, but hey Undying are a DIY band, and although closer to metal in sound, the ethics are undeniably hardcore. I hope their newer cd is better produced though.

Still overall a very decent cd

This vegan sxe metal influenced hardcore band has never ceased to amaze me. When their first release came out, (This Day All Gods Die) I bought it, popped it in and was amazed. They blended hardcore and metal stylings perfectly to create a black metalcore band that you could still hear the hardcore. With this release, it's got more of the metal harmonics and the machine gun riffs. It's still more hardcore than their counterpart band Prayer for Cleansing, but this is still more metal than their last release. My only problem with it is the songs sort of run together after a few songs. Not terribly, just a little bit. Otherwise, I reccomend this for any fan of the more metal side of hardcore. Someone said this is what Shai Hulud would sound like if you sped up their music and added more metal. I have no idea why anyone would say that.

i find this cd to be extremely boring. ive heard this cd before, and by that i mean that 100 hardcore bands beforehand have done the melodic guitars throughout the cd. i popped this cd into my player and was expecting to get floored with pounding riffs i get boring melodic guitars, dont get me wrong i love melodic guitars but they get extremely boring once you hear them in EVERY song through the WHOLE song. not to mention that the vocalist isnt the greatest screamer out there, he gets annoying fast as well. plus there are random whispered or softly spoken lyrics througout the cd that just push me even more to turn this cd in....i strongly suggest you get a good listen before you pick this one up. you might like it you might not, and i know that a lot of people are probably going to be biting my head off, but hey everyone has an opinion.

First off i want to address this Joe Trohman kat who apparently isnt to up to date on Hardcore these days...stated: Shai Hulud had the drummer from Strongarm...well Strongarm had the drummer from Shai Hulud as he was doing it kind of as a side project on his down time with Shai Hulud..and second stated: Undyings counterpart Prayer For Cleansing..ok what does that mean..your review for the whispered lies of angels was written in Jan 2001..Prayer For Cleansing broke up in Dec of 2000...some counterpart eh...think before u make statements that arent true..anyway...livin in NC and Undying bein 45 min from where i live these guys are rad...every time they play it amazes me...this cd is good but i prefer this day all gods die..but this is a great cd defiantely worth checkin out...and for the Prayer For Cleansing fans..the new band Between The Buried and Me have their first show on April 15th..The band has the same members as they did right b4 the break up with a new guitarist and tommy the guitarist from Prayer singing this should be good..that is all