Decimate The Weak, the Century Media debut for Southern California's Winds Of Plague is easily a major improvement to what they previously had going on.
Having seen Winds Of Plague live back in 2006 supporting Bleeding Through, it was easy to see that the band had been hugely influenced by BT. The difference being that at the time, vocalist Johnny Plague came off as more of a wanna be "tough guy" with his macho posturing and shit talking between songs (due to the lack of crowd response). When you're in a band like Pantera, or even Hatebreed or Madball, there is some legitimacy to the "tough guy" act. But when you're in a band that isn't even signed to a legitimate label, not to mention relatively unheard of at that point, it's extremely uncalled for. And it makes any potential fans dislike you and your band before they've even had a chance to decide if they like your band's music or not.
Getting back on track here, the older material from Winds Of Plague was nothing more than a bad attempt at Bleeding Through's "Black Metalcore" stylings. And it didn't help that Johnny's vocal style was a bunch of second rate death metal barks, with little variation. He was lacking in range, excepting the hardcore shouts that strayed from the lower end guttural death growls. And the production quality didn't help either.
With Decimate The Weak, things sure have changed for the band. To begin with, Johnny Plague's vocal delivery has improved significantly. There is a noticeable differenece in his vocal range, from guttural death to acidic black, layered deathcore screams to random hardcore shouts that adds so much more to the music. He's finally come into his own vocally, and that's saying alot when compared to the band's prior outing.
Musically, the keyboards add a whole new dimension to WoP's sound. Matt Fineman adds tons of wicked nuances, layers and textures of sound which only serve to make the music more interesting, and the dual melodies are incredibly stunning. The guitarwork is also stepped up, to compete with the keyboards, and Johnny's more developed vocal ability. And of course, one can never forget the groundwork that is always laid out and maintained by the band's most vital components......the rhythm section of bassist Ander Glover, and drummer Jeff Tenney.
Decimate The Weak is definitely the step in the right direction, and is exactly what the band needed to make them stand out in the oversaturated deathcore/metalcore scene. The decision to bring new elements into the band's sound was an extremely wise one, considering metalcore has already been beat to death. Here's to hoping that more bands are willing to step away from the "safe zone" and start being creative again, instead of biting off the next band's sound. In the meantime, Winds Of Plague will be one step ahead of the game....
