Oh, how we’ve longed for this stench.
Coming off their nasty 2024 single, “A Visceral Retch,” deathcore dominators Whitechapel have officially announced they have a new and ultra-heavy album on the way called Hymns in Dissonance, and they’ve just premiered its fast-and-fetid title track.
If the album title sounds familiar, that’s because Whitechapel also dubbed their upcoming trip with Brand of Sacrifice and 200 Stab Wounds the “Hymns in Dissonance tour.”
The album’s title track, meanwhile, is a blistering attack of ground-fissuring blasts, terror-thrashed guitar melodies and guts-hucking mosh sections. Lyrically, “Hymns in Dissonance” has Bozeman disgustingly describing hellacious vignettes of impalements, throat-chewin’ sacrifices and other horrors that would cause “the bowels of holy men…to drain.”
In short, it’s not exactly a feel-good hymn for us to sing together. That’s kind of the point.
“Hymns in Dissonance is a mockery of the true nature of what hymns are,” Bozeman explained in a statement of the broader themes of Whitechapel’s next album. “Hymns are melodious and harmonious. Dissonance is the opposite of melody and harmony. Dissonance represents evil.”
He added that tracks 3 to 10 on the album are the “hymns,” and that they represent the seven deadly sins.
Whitechapel began writing their Hymns in Dissonance at guitarist Zach Householder’s home studio in 2023. The record, which follows 2021’s Kin, is said to be the band’s attempt at making “ignorantly heavy music again.”
“There is nothing nice about Hymns in Dissonance, from the riffs to the lyrics to the overall vibe of the album,” added guitarist Alex Wade. “We attempted to write our heaviest album to date. We wanted to put out something that was shockingly menacing and brutal.”
Hymns in Dissonance is out March 7th through Metal Blade Records. That’d be one week shy of the band’s aforementioned North American “Hymns of Dissonance Tour” alongside Brand of Sacrifice, 200 Stab Wounds and Alluvial.
The trip formally kicks off March 18th at Raleigh, North Carolina’s The Ritz, and concludes April 19th at Atlanta, Georgia’s The Masquerade venue. You’ll find the rest of the date details here.
Hymns in Dissonance tracklisting:
Prisoner 666
Hymns In Dissonance
Diabolic Slumber
A Visceral Retch
Ex Infernis
Hate Cult Ritual
The Abysmal Gospel
Bedlam
Mammoth God
Nothing Is Coming For Any Of Us