Whitechapel - Hymns In Dissonance (Official Video)

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“There is nothing nice about Hymns In Dissonance, from the riffs, to the lyrics, to the overall vibe of the album,” says guitarist Alex Wade of the band’s latest output. “We attempted to write our heaviest album to date. We wanted to put out something that was shockingly menacing and brutal.”

“The album follows the story of a cultist who is gathering worthy people to join his cult,” Wade further elaborates, “and there are moments in the storyline where the cult followers are singing an evil hymn to open a portal for the head cultist to enter.”

The band’s dynamic, brutal musicality serves as a soundtrack to the compelling lyrical story that vocalist Phil Bozeman vividly imagines. “Hymns In Dissonance is a mockery of the true nature of what hymns are,” Bozeman explains. “Hymns are melodious and harmonious. Dissonance is the opposite of melody and harmony. Dissonance represents evil. The tracks on the record are the hymns, which represent the seven deadly sins, beginning from Track three to Track ten. Tracks one and two are the introduction.”

The band started composing the new album at Householder’s studio in June of 2023, following their headlining tour for "The Valley." The collective stuck to a strict weekday schedule, the structure allowing for maximum creativity and minimum burnout. Householder produced "Hymns In Dissonance," which allowed the musicians to seamlessly switch gears from preproduction to recording the full album without skipping a beat. The guitarist shadowed producer Mark Lewis a lot over the last five WHITECHAPEL albums and bringing that influence inside the band is a full circle moment for Householder and WHITECHAPEL. “It’s cool that we can be self-sufficient and produce a record of this magnitude ourselves; not a lot of bands can say that.”

Notes Bozeman, “It’s about [the storyline’s cultist] building his cult of followers: Only the most heinous and vile people on the planet showing their devotion to their lord, committing horrible acts, and the leader showcasing his power and his purpose to commit the seven cardinal sins to resurrect their lord, and to replace divinity with evil.”

Adds Wade, “Mostly written by Phil on guitar, "Hymns In Dissonance" has a few riffs and tweaks thrown in by the rest of us. He can churn out some pummeling riffs and it’s one of the best songs on the album because he had a vision for the whole song with the riffs and vocals. It’s tuned to Drop G which we have been using since the self-titled LP, but the ending breakdown shifts down one whole step to Drop F, which we have never done before. Having the final breakdown shift lower than the rest of the song really helped the end have the crushing feeling it needed.”

LYRICS:
Rehtaf fo seil
Rehtaf fo eht ssyba
Ew emoc morf woleb
Nepo ruoy seye gnik Reficul
Redrum meht lla

I've come to consume all the seas
And walk with the surface of the sun beneath my feet
I stand before this withered sepulcher
Saturating my flesh in sulfur
The fruitful now rotten
Restrained by roots of feces and mold

Oh, how I've longed for the stench
And the gentle caress of ivory skin of a witch
Of righteous, I am not

Feel the worms crawl in your every orifice
Your eyes start to jaundice as they make their way through
Converted to our ways, you can't ignore this
Saved from the faith that'll fuck you
Brothers, sisters, mothers smothered
In the name of the father, the abyss walker
The cloth from which I'm cut will never fray
For it is hexed by this hymn that I sing

The trinity denied
Our bloodline will never dry
My words, unsanctified
In time, we'll chant these lines

I am the last living son of the father of lies
The millions of legions that follow by my side
Shall exalt, praise and worship the gift of his possession
Exiled no more, we spread because we are the disease

Hang the virgins
Burn the children
Hymns of dissonance we sing
As the bowels of holy men begin to drain

For those of you who think that the walls can't break
Behold the rusted piece that you will sit on
Feel it penetrate, as above so below
It's the last thing you taste, the shit runs deep
Natas, eht rehtaf
Ehtab su ni ruflus
Natas, eht rehtaf
Ehtab su ni ruflus
We speak in tongues and wallow in rot
The light of the earth, forgot

As you lay impaled on this inverted cross
I masticate the throats of your lambs
As I masturbate to the sound of them choking
A seed of change, from which spawned of my hand
Shall inseminate inside the womb of a whore

We are the last living sons of the father of lies
We cast out the light, eternally refuged in night
Brother Daemon, in your profane name we thrive
To all that are dead, stay dead
We are the means to a messiahbolical end

Father, we've come to devour the eyes of god
Acid and the iris now as one
All-seeing, with the heart encased in fire
Burn, burn
Reversal of the cycle of life itself
Back to the womb we shall terminate
Burn, burn, burn, burn
Burn, forever burn