Whitechapel - Lost Boy

 

Key Facts

Country: 🇺🇸

Genre: Deathcore

Release Date: 31st August 2021

Record Label(s): Metal Blade Records

Album Release Date: 29th October 2021

Band Members

Phil Bozeman – Vocals

Ben Savage – Lead Guitar

Alex Wade – Rhythm Guitar

Gabe Crisp – Bass

Zach Householder – Third Guitar

Alex Rüdinger – Drums

Whitechapel - Lost Boy

Review

Rating (out of 5🤘): 🤘🤘🤘🤘🤘

Following up the hugely successful album that is 2019's The Valley was always going to be a significant task for Whitechapel. The shift in sound with more clean vocals was executed to perfection and gained the band a whole host of new fans, now they eagerly await what comes next. Having announced their new album will be called Kin, with the rather alien looking yet mystical cover you can see above, there is definitely potential there for this album to be bigger than its predecessor. Now that Alex Rüdinger is a permanent member of the band after years of being a touring member this could lean to a significantly more cohesive (which they are already regardless) performance, adding an extra dimension of raw power to their sound. Speculation aside, Lost Boy is an aggressive but surprisingly sensitive song that still sees the band push their own boundaries. 

Lost Boy carries on where The Valley left off, seeing the band expand their songwriting, continuing to include emotional and poignant clean vocals alongside significantly cleaner and melodic guitar passages. Whilst there is no disagreeing that this is still very much a metal song, it feels like the vibe of the moment in time in which the band sits has been perfectly captured. With that in mind it does feel a lot more open ended, with a plethora of other influences being allowed in and so much of that is reflected in Lost Boy as more technically melodic rock sections rear their head and compliment the technical death metal/deathcore sound the band has already established. There is a poignancy to the song, where The Valley felt very aggressive, looking back at the central figures in that album's stories with scorn and visceral anger. Lost Boy has a cautious optimism to it, given the emotional and physical weight of meaning within Bozeman's lyrics there is so much to take from the song. Thankfully, we don't have to speculate as Phil explained the lyrics in the video below;

The clean vocal part is easily the most stand out part, as Phil experiments melodically. Although glimmers of it were heard on The Valley, what you hear on Lost Boy gets you excited and sick with anticipation as it feels like they have doubled down on this sound and not shied away from it. Lyrics aside, the song has an element of progressiveness about it, with its guitar passages continually evolving and shifting as the song progresses. This gives the song a real dynamism, keeping you on the edge of your seat throughout, so when the clean, atmospheric verse hits it hits with a significant weight. Overall, the song is a tantalising first look at what is to come. 

The production carries a similar style to The Valley, the cleaner sound yet still retaining the raw aggression usually found on a Whitechapel record. This applies more so to the guitars whose melodies and sweeping passages seem to shine even brighter than those on the record before. The drums and bass carry a more refined impact, working with nuance and subtlety to accentuate the various sections within the song, reinforcing the dynamism in the composition itself. Overall the mix, just like the song, is a tantalising first look at what is to come. 

Whitechapel are still showing the world that they are very much on the top of their game, continuing with the more diverse song writing, this next chapter is very exciting. Hearing Phil's clean vocals progress is something special as they resonate with the listener's emotions even more this time around. It is fair to say that Kin the hype train has left the station!