Thechopstickdrummer
I’m a Star Wars guy, not a Doctor Who guy. If you were to order me to name ten characters from Doctor Who, I’d say TARDIS, Captain Kirk, Superman, and the Pillsbury Doughboy. I’m joking, I’m joking. I do know, however, of the “Weeping Angels,” a race of Doctor Who aliens that appear as statues and move to send victims into the past when unobserved. Pretty terrifying, if you ask me. Weeping angels also appear in real life, mostly on gravestones to symbolize grief and mourning. Whether New York’s Weeping Angel drew their eponymous title from TV or a graveyard isn’t clear; what is clear is their progressive metalcore tendencies and the release of their newest album.
In Too Deep marks the debut full-length for this American five-piece, featuring eleven tracks that encompass traditional metalcore, progressive metal, djent, hardcore, and even a touch of symphonic metal. Weeping Angel is a band of many ideas, yet they confined themselves to a genre problematic to experiment with without their choices coming off as kitschy or contrived. The album is a rollercoaster of influences, most of which overshadow the one of utmost importance: a cinematic atmosphere. Weeping Angel is capable of creating great environments within a radio-friendly runtime, not all of them ruined by the typical electronic metalcore production. Hideo Schwartz, the vocalist, sings with clean hope as much as he does gritty wrath, even venturing into deathcore-like belts. His cleans are lovely, especially in the frequent hazy chorus.
He experiments and ends up with questionable results. He growls over tender piano in “When Fate Forgot Me” (included so that they can slap “symphonic metal” in their description), sounding quite awkward. His hardcore deliveries in “Gentlemen,” which transform into cleans, then into deathcore BLECHS, are too busy and sound quite convoluted in quick succession. Vocals aside, the instrumentation itself isn’t progressive in a boundary-pushing sense–a djenty, time signature switchery style popular amongst crossbred prog genres. The modern mixing assists the atmosphere built upon systematic and mechanical guitar chugging, distortion, and vocals, but often buries the bass and sounds too sharp in electronic-forward pieces such as “Parasite.” There, piercing guitar screeches chirp in, both instances doing nothing to progress the track. The bass would elevate the song and give it a human essence, not frequently heard throughout In Too Deep.
Song structures are also toyed with. Breakdowns are plentiful, seemingly an easy element to utilize instead of exploring more imaginative directions. Deftones-like singing into choppy, down-tuned breakdowns, arriving chronologically after easy listening melodies with layered guitars, is just one example of the sonic whiplashes I endured during the thirty-nine minutes of In Too Deep’s playtime.
I’m glad to report that these djent and deathcore inclusions result in a heavier form of metalcore. There’s no gainsaying that popular metalcore is a softer style of metal, but metalcore’s heyday, man, it was ferocious. Weeping Angel thankfully dabbles in the dark side, but the Force is pulling them in, whispering oracular messages of cohesivity and more controlled experimentation. Will the men of Weeping Angel join the Jedi? Damn it, those are Star Wars references.
Label: Abyssal Resonance
Release date: 25th July, 2026
Website: https://www.facebook.com/people/Weeping-Angel/61581609905586/
Country: USA
Score: 2.5/5.0
Metal Eclipse Reviews 