Beyond All Recognition: The Rise of Dubcore?

If you keep up with modern music then you would have noticed a rise in an electronic genre called dubstep (although I am hoping that it is on its way out).  This "music" is created by recording the sound of two robots having sex, the sound AOL dial up made, an alien distress signal, or any combination of all of that and playing it back on your Mac Book.  As you may have noticed in the preceding sentence that I am not the biggest dubstep fan, its fun to drum to but not my cup of tea, mainly because I prefer to see people actually playing instruments rather than one dude pressing play on his computer.  Ok I'm done with the genre bashing I promise.  Slowly dubstep has been moving into the main stream by itself, or by collaborating with pop stars of the time.  Up until recently it stayed away from hard rock and heavy metal.  That was until Korn decided to make a whole album of them collaborating with dubstep DJs and thus their album The Path of Totality was born.  While I enjoyed one of the songs (Get Up! featuring Skrillex) I couldn't help but think during that song that there was just too much dubstep for my taste, I mean they gave Skrillex a sort of breakdown in the song, not something I really enjoyed.  What needed to happen was someone needed to take dubstep and fuse just the right amount of it with heavy metal, much like Asking Alexandria and Attack Attack do with their fusion of metal and dance.

Enter Sweden's Beyond All Recognition, who just released their debut album Drop=Dead on Napalm Records.  This band has taken what Asking Alexandria does best but instead they have taken out normal dance beats and inserted dubstep elements into their song, thus starting the genre 'dubcore'.  The first song I heard by them was "Characters" when the video for the song came on my Youtube feed.  I will admit at first listen I was not entirely blown away, I do remember thinking they looked like Bring Me the Horizon, but I found my self slowly coming back and watching their video and the song started to grow on me.

"Characters" starts off with a quiet, but crescendoing, drum fill that leads to a bass drop when the song finally kicks in.  Throughout the song the dubstep element of the band takes a back seat to the hardcore/heavy metal element of the band.  Which is the way I think it aught to be.  The song thunders along like you would expect a metalcore song to.  Going through mosh pit educing break down after mosh pit educing break down, with some dubstep elements peaking their head through going "Hey if you were looking for dubstep here I am!"  I guess what I'm trying to say is that Beyond All Recognition treats the dubstep as if they had a 6th member of the band who was a DJ, much like a nu metal band, the dubstep becomes another instrument.  Sure every once in a while it may have a brief solo, but for the most part it accompanies and enhances the brutal metalcore these Swedes throw at the listener.

Here is the video for "Characters" 

Throughout the entirity of their album Drop=Dead, Beyond All Recognition continues with this formula they present in "Characters" (Characters just happens to be the first song on the album).  Sure there are songs where the dubstep is a little more prominent, and the last song "End of Recognition" as well as the bonus remix of the song "Smoke and Mirrors" are straight up dubstep songs, but it doesn't take away from the overall intensity that these Swedes dish out over the course of the album.  

Overall if you're a fan of bands like Asking Alexandria, Attack Attack or any other band that combines heavy metal elements with electronic accompaniment, do yourself a favor and get Drop=Dead.  You will not be disappointed and if you don't like it at first listen, give it some time and it will grow on you just as it grew on me.  Beyond All Recognition is a young band and I am interested to see if what these Swedes still have tucked up the sleeves of their matching letterman's jackets in the years to come.  

Thanks guys!
-Zach

PS I know dubstep people like to talk about the bass drop but we must remember the wise words of Darth Vader:

 

Remember if there is a band you want me to talk about or an album you want me to review, leave a comment below or tweet me @zachktheanimal.