This is the second album from Portuguese deathcore band Downfall of Mankind.
The promo blurb recommends Purgatory for fans of bands such as Distant, Gojira, and Lorna Shore, and calls it a mix of deathcore, progressive metal and atmosphere, which saves me the job of providing a rough overview before we get into the meat of it.
In essence, Downfall of Mankind play a symphonic brand of deathcore that has a healthy dose of melody, hooks, and clean singing. If you think of it as a cross between deathcore and modern/groove/metalcore, then you’ll be on the right lines. This means that we get raging heaviness and accessible catchiness, all wrapped up in a tight metallic bundle.
The songs are well-written and built around a sturdy structure of big guitars, breakdowns, and aggressive muscle. Layered atop this are symphonic elements that highlight and accentuate, but don’t overpower. Added to this are melodic adornments, some ripping guitar solos, and a few other creative ideas, instrumentation, and sounds that bring further interest to the music. Finally, the singer unleashes a barrage of growls, screams, and roars, alongside the occasional bout of clean singing to complement the harshness. Of the latter, I like that the cleans are frequently used in a supportive capacity, rather than as the showstopping chorus, (there are some of these too, of course).
Purgatory is a very enjoyable listen. If you’re a fan of the style then there’s much to get on board with here. Crucially, although the primary ingredients of the music aren’t dissimilar to any number of other bands, Downfall of Mankind have managed to gather a collection of song together that are just better than the average. There’s also more texture and variety here than is common for the style, much to the band’s credit, (Down the Barrel of Madness is a great example of this). Also, believe it or not, there’s even an infrequent touch of what sounds to me like power metal here and there. It’s true.
Downfall of Mankind walk the line between brutality and accessibility in a way that works very well for them, and I very much like their willingness to explore outside of the typical deathcore tropes, (Consumed by Strife is probably the biggest example of this, but not the only one). Due to this, I’m put in mind of Enterprise Earth, who are also an above average, wider-ranging band in the genre and who also released a strong album this year.
Purgatory is better than I expected, and I’d definitely recommend this to anyone partial to a bit of song-focused contemporary heaviness.
Wonderbox Metal 