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Readers' Choice

HERE COMES THE KRAPPIN’

 Tuesday, December 1st, 2009 at 10:30am by

Reader Mike Winston sent us a very articulate and well-reasoned e-mail regarding Mexico’s Here Come the Kraken, and it’s clear that he meant for us to write positive things about the band.

And so I’m a little sad to say that I think this band is trend-following drek. Sorry, Mike. I hope we can still be pals. I really do appreciate how much effort went into your e-mail, as opposed to the usual “CHECK THIZ BAND OUT THEY R00L!!!” we usually get.

Listen to some Here Comes the Kraken, then let Mike know what you think of ‘em in the comments section.

-AR

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  • http://www.last.fm/user/groverXIII groverXIII

    Surprisingly enough, I kinda liked it. I even thought the first breakdown was kind of interesting. It’s definitely a bit weedly weedly, but I like weedly weedly. These guys would be better if they were to avoid the breakdowns, for the most part, and I think I probably would’ve enjoyed it a bit more if I weren’t watching the video (they kind of look like kids pretending to be a death metal band… fuck, I feel old now). But I’m going to give them a shot. They certainly aren’t worse than half the Sumeriancore bands that get posted on here.

    • http://www.gravatar.com/avatar/46e389eb8b79606050d3d447431ff6ac?s=80 Nate

      Agreed. They’re pretty good.

    • http://www.facebook.com/people/Tony-Bullard-Jr/500191336 Tony Bullard Jr

      I was not surprised in the least that you liked it. When I hit play, I immediately thought, “grover’s gonna find this kind of interesting.”

      • http://www.last.fm/user/groverXIII groverXIII

        Heh… in all fairness, I’m pretty accepting of most heavy music these days. But yeah, I’m at least downloading their album to see if it’s any good.

  • http://www.facebook.com/people/Jason-John-Crispen/100000169530540 Jason John Crispen

    i dig it

  • http://www.facebook.com/people/Amircito-Antonio-Palma/777253992 Amircito Antonio Palma

    These guys are pretty cool, I actually have this album. They’re alot better than alot of the deathcore bands out there I’ll tell you that!!

  • Alkahest

    I could get into it maybe.

    • Alkahest

      I’d like to add, they’re better than your average deathcore. That melodic bass thing at about halfway through was pretty cool and unexpected.

  • YildunDave

    They have some potential, but here’s where they go wrong:

    1. Song has no flow, whatsoever. Randomness done right can be a good thing, however here there is almost no point where I can start getting into the groove of the music. There is no point where the riffs make any sense next to each other, or in relation to each other throughout the song.

    2. This band has enough talent to be a legit tech-death band. If only they dropped the deathcore influence and built on the cool tech stuff they had going on. 4:08-4:40 is terrific, save the “guitar solo”. The song could have (and should have) been built around these riff ideas. But at the 4:41 mark, they revert back to the generic deathcore breakdown. Boring and detrimental to the song as a whole.

    • http://themetalgrinder.com M Kraatz

      Yeah, they’ve got decent chops, their writing is just shit. I kept wondering how long they were going to milk that first riff: two minutes.

  • lol

    dont fail me darko is a sick song

    • http://www.facebook.com/people/Mike-Bishop/571220161 Mike Bishop

      ^^^^

      • lolwut

        i agree it really is my girlfriend showed it to me

  • http://www.prophetsofdoom.wordpress.com Prophet

    worst vocals I’ve heard in a long time.

  • kirk

    yawn. boring as fuck.

  • timmah

    haha, let’s see him play those gravity blasts live.

    i got nothing out of this band.

  • hellboar

    i hate his guitar tone.

  • Slender

    I dont think it was totally bad…… It could be alot better but I mean it sounds like Sumatra you guys repped alot, just a little under produced.

  • You Don’t Know Me

    I’ve heard worse. Not anything I’m dying to hear more of but nothing bad really. They’ve got some interesting parts in there that I think if they spent more time honing their songwriting skills, they could do some really good stuff.

  • earthsherm

    it’s crazy that music this tech can be called boring

  • orbital

    stick to mariachi

    • http://www.facebook.com/people/Dru-Morrison/1641060092 Dru Morrison

      Snap!

  • Incandenza

    While I agree that the recent trend is towards uber-technical (and yawningly soulless) metal, and that said trend produces, for the most part, shitty bands, I really fucking enjoy this! Nice balance of emotion and technicality, which is apparently really hard to do correctly.

  • http://www.facebook.com/people/Matt-Danger-Dasher/30826541 Matt Danger Dasher

    HCtK is one of three deathcore bands that I actually like. There. I said it.

  • Joakim Hveem

    I agree with YildunDave; randomness usually kicks ass but somehow they lose the groove while doing this, it’s to bad realy. And furthermore the song is a bit to monotonous, he should try to differentiate it a bit, giving the song a better feel and chararcter. With that said, it shure was hig tech slamming…

  • Zoker

    The problem is not the band, it’s the whole genre. Awful.

  • Zac

    I think that they are talented at playing their instruments, especially the drummer, but I do not like their music at all.

  • Walker

    It almost seems like they are playing the styles of all the bands on their t-shirts. They seem very young, so for a first product, I think they did a hell of a job. Now once they discover who they are as a band and not who they like, it could be interesting.

  • Skanes

    Doesn’t really spark any interest for me, but I can see why people may like them.

  • atomicgarden

    I’ll tell you why they suck:
    0:35 The most generic metalcore guitar harmony ever

  • joshkid

    I agree with a bunch of the above dudes, TOO. MUCH. RANDOMNESS.
    But these guys have major talent so maybe they can create somethin better than this.
    And anway as of now I’m listening to Planetary Duality from The Faceless over and over and over etc. for the last week and a half straight. So until some other tech death band that’s better than them pops up, I’ll be listening to Planetary Duality until I puke!!!

    • joshkid

      Oh and I saw The Faceless live last Sat. and these guys can absolutely leave you faceless from their immense br00tality and talent!

  • bretton

    they’re nothing new (or they’re everything new depending on how you look at it) but they’re good at what they do. I don’t think I’ll listen to them any more. wish I had the drummer’s speed though

  • http://www.facebook.com/people/Chet-A-Soule/829423816 Chet A Soule

    I dig these guys.

  • noobpotato

    I think they are good personally, the album as a whole is definetly nothing special, and i swear that part at :30 crops up in almost every song on it, and the song structures are terrible, but the instrumentation is good.

  • evilfatguy

    Give these kids 5 more years, and they will be killer. As it stands, this song is a mishmash of riff ideas that aren’t pasted together very well. And that solo? What the fuck?
    Also, pitch-shifted vocals are fucking gay, and I wish people would stop doing it so much. I’m looking at you, deathcore scene.

  • Malacoda

    Whoever said the guitar tone sucks is right. It sounds weak and like they didn’t do any mixing on it whatsoever. The music is pretty good though… it’s no Whitechapel/Oceano shitfest. And the breakdowns are better than just chug chug chug. This band is definitely trend-following, but are definitely not the worst new deathcore band out there.

  • Malacoda

    And props for the Animosity tee.

  • http://www.facebook.com/people/Ian-Wilmot/1177765489 Ian Wilmot

    this is actually quite good
    as compared to suicide silence
    which this website actually likes
    i usually like any techy stuff
    so
    this is cool
    also i think 2 of the members are wearing aborted shirts
    so i approve

  • syclonus

    at least they’re better than iwrestledabearonce.

  • http://www.concatenationrecords.com Kodiak

    They’re not too bad as is – technically sound, but all over the place with the songwriting. They all look rather young, so give them a few years to work on their songwriting and they could be one of the more respected bands in this genre.

  • http://www.facebook.com/people/Adam-Joseph-Bailey/656942432 Adam Joseph Bailey

    i like this band personally they are really close to the sound of with passion/conducting from a grave. so they get my vote.

  • oBESTIALo

    i knew about them for a while, theyre pretty ok, a little generic, but still enjoyable

  • Nad Skcab

    I’ve known of them for awhile. I’ll come here and read a 4 or 5 horn review, listen to it, and not like it at all. I have HCtK’s CD and enjoy it a lot more than the other stuff that this site raves about. It’s all about taste. They’re not Krappen, you just don’t like them. A few friends of mine like Nickleback. I don’t like them but it doesn’t mean they suck and my friends aren’t retards for listening to them. They just appeal to my friends. I don’t like Mastadon because they don’t appeal to me, but you guys can listen to them all you want if you like it.
    All about taste.

  • Andrew

    They are better than your average deathcore band, they might end up being one of the more better bands in the deathcore genre. But I don’t think i’ll give them another listen or download their album. I tend to dislike deathcore like bands.

  • Nomick

    I actually fuckin’ love this band!, i also think that this is not one of their best songs, without a doubt my favorite song is “I Shawtrcwbky” or “Confessions of what i’ve done”.

  • Tj

    It was better than what I was expecting but I couldn’t sit through the whole song, I kept thinking “it’s like arsis but not as talented/original/catchy, but just as scene” (I like Arsis fine enough but they have a sound that won’t age well) it’s like listening to black dahlia murder, and I hate those guys. People like it becuase it isn’t dangerous in any way, it’s super friendly super approachable “extreme” metal. Which is fine but it’s something that will fade away fast, it doesn’t ad anything to the genre. It’s Roland Emmerich music.

  • http://www.ftsmetal.com James

    This is trendy but that new Through The Eyes of the Dead, NOW THAT’S ORIGINAL!

    • http://www.facebook.com/people/Jake-Lentz/20725060 Jake Lentz

      Case and point, James.

      You can’t tell me new TTEOTD is good and this is “trend following.”

  • http://www.facebook.com/people/Jake-Lentz/20725060 Jake Lentz

    Dear Sumerian,

    Sign this band. They’ve got potential.

  • Avoid The Light

    Seems like this thread/band got way less hate than usual MetalSucks threads do. Pretty happy about that. Yeah, they’re young and have plenty of room for growth. I look forward to watching their development as musicians.

    -Mike W