“Look into my eyes as I show you God.”
It’s 2008. You’re logging onto MySpace through your Windows XP tower in anticipation of whatever sadistically lyricized screamo release awaits you next. You’re probably charged up on substantial amounts of caffeine, too. It’s been decided to abandon all personal responsibility for the next twenty to forty minutes and two-step to the point of rendering your bedroom into a state of disarray that would dwarf the aftermath of an EF5 tornado. Yet as if there was ever any doubt, the bass drops, breakdowns, and goblin vocals made it well worth the obligatory cleanup.
The ‘MySpace era‘ truly embodies the mold of a bygone juncture. Whether that concerns soundproofing your makeshift at-home recording studio with egg cartons or live tracking each song of a project you plan on handing out at the next local show in your hometown, it was, as us old fogies say, a different time indeed. Even while the formerly mentioned practices most likely continue to this day, it was the signature deathcore sound of that generation that seemingly vanished for a time. Moving forward, deathcore branched out into the realms of symphonics, blackened undertones, more contemporary production methods, and even cleans. The community response to such a transition ultimately painted a picture of deathcore as a devolved and dying genre. With perennial discourse—most of which being as comparably sophomoric as a Call of Duty lobby—harping on the deviation from what had made deathcore a staple in the early annals of the underground metal scene, many were left in a wistful position of hoping for a return to its malignant roots.
2023 was the starting point for what has been dubbed the ‘MySpace revival era’ for deathcore. Anyone that is remotely privy to the resurgence knows of forerunners PSYCHO-FRAME and 9 Dead. While both are arguably at the vanguard of this renaissance’s blood-thirsty herd, lesser-known contemporaries such as VICTIMBLAMED, CRUCIFICTION, Killing of a Sacred Deer, and Slamwich pack an equally haymaking punch. Given the collective masochistic rabble of revival deathcore enthusiasts that continually beckon for more, Indiana-based newcomers, Mauled, are hot on the scene to provide. If you’ve been looking for progenitive idealists that can combine the pig squeals of Job for a Cowboy, the bass drops of Waking the Cadaver, the raw production and chugs of early Suicide Silence, and the vocal fluctuation of self-titled Chelsea Grin: Mauled has found the malevolently concocted formula. Stay frosty; Mauled’s second EP is the brooding output of a band with the hunger of a malnourished cannibal that ruthlessly laughs at every bit of suffering inflicted upon listeners.
Old school deathcore was—and still is—just plain terrifying. While undoubtedly heavy yet bogged down by overly raw production, Mauled’s 2023 debut EP, Wrath, exhibited that very canvas of hauntingly ferocious sound. Their latest slaughter-filled outing, however, provides a generous coat of crisp engineering that makes for an exponentially better listening experience. This in turn also creates an even more blood-curdling atmosphere.
“Resume Carnage” begins the assault. Less than a minute and a half is all it takes to set the precedent of what Mauled is ultimately aiming to do; split your cranium down the middle with a rusted pickaxe and scare you shitless while doing so. Kitchen pot snare, equalizer-devoid bass drop, quad chugs, and squeals are all present and viciously accounted for. Mauled from the very onset, unearth every identifiable aspect of MySpace deathcore and kicks the human entrail-stained gear into a thousand.
Like many of their constituents, Mauled executes revival deathcore to a degree that makes each track feel a million years long without overstaying a single second of its welcome. For as much nuance and technicality that modern deathcore offers (don’t worry, deathcore gatekeepers, everything will be okay. Close your eyes and go touch grass.), its early sound had an unshakable propensity for making superficially structured songs feel fully immersive from start to finish. That is no different on Mauled’s newest output. With the continued defilement of whatever the opening track left them to violate, Mauled drops a barbed wire-draped sledgehammer on us with “NGEFY” and the titular, self-denominative composition.
It wouldn’t be revival core without a nice, reliable pair of samples, would it? “From Life…To Lifeless” ominously opens with a police siren sound bite. It’s almost laughably fitting for an EP that has openly committed first-degree murder on our eardrums. Perhaps meant to finish the job, “From Life…To Lifeless” ends the existence of those with stronger constitutions that managed to make it this far into Mauled’s festival of torture. Yet such a triumph proves futile once “Dead Asleep” starts. Staying true to genre foundations with another sample, “Dead Asleep” is the longest and most technically gelled thrashing of this onslaught. If true evil came in evocative pairs, Mauled has certainly conceived such a notion with the two aforementioned incantations. This is appropriately footnoted with a more solidly produced version of an older song from their back catalogue.
Mauled has pulled off a true masterclass with their most recent conquest. Whether you are keen on modern deathcore or not, most can agree that in some ways, this genre may have lost a bit of its identity along the way as it compartmentalized into the many sub-categories it’s known by today. With a string of tracks that embody everything the deathcore days of yore maliciously stood for, Mauled have reminded us all through trial by agonizing fire exactly what it is. From the standpoint of the next batch of wretched spawns of this revival movement, it’s driving us all to the very brink of committing unholy atrocities. Make sure you hydrate with a bottle of holy water; the next biggest name in deathcore renewal is here.
9/10
Mauled releases independently on April 28th on all streaming platforms.