Band : Antagonist
Album title : World In Decline
Label : Prosthetic
Distributor : Prosthetic
Release date : 17/08/2010
Release : CD

As I already came across this Los Angeles based Metalcore band with their 2009 sophomore full-length Exist(US release was in 2008, by the way), it's to that review (posted 25/01/2009) I would want you to direct yourselves for historical facts prior to that moment.

Having found no sources of info relating the band's tribulations since the release of that album, there's really very little I can add to that info, except for the fact that the two (unrelated) Garcias in the band (singer/guitarist Carlos and drummer Lond) have exchanged their former bandmembers by guitarist Roland Leonard (of Cerberus and The Funeral Pyre repute) and bassist Nick Reyes (no additional info available)...and this has obviously changed the musical synergies within the band. According to Carlos the changes is “...nothing too out of left field, but definitely some vibes different from the usual Antagonist sound...”. The band had been rehearsing and demoing a bunch of new songs for quite a while, and in mid April 2010 decided to join forces with producer Paul Miner (known from having been behind the knobs for recordings of the likes of Throwdown, Thrice, Terror, New Found Glory, and many more) to record a new album at Southern California's Buzz Bomb Studios.

The resulting 10-track album sees the band tightening up their sound and technical abilities. The most obvious different with previous works of the band, is perhaps the fact that there's no more clean singing involved...but actually that's a mood sought for. You see, whereas Exist still had a hopeful message of working together as humans towards a better future, the new album is “about the realization that things will always be fucked up, people will always be selfish, and this world is going to end at any minute, and we have nobody to blame but ourselves...” (taken from the band/ label's info sheet on the album). In other words, the mood is far more aggressive, and clean vocals somehow didn't fit into that picture. Personally, I feel the vocal harshness shifts the overall sound slightly more towards the Hardcore realm of Metalcore...but that's a personal view on things, and you're absolutely free to make up your own opinion. To help you with that, the band posted two of the album's songs (one in demo version) at myspace.com/antagonist (also available on the band's facebook page). I'm sure that when listening, you'll agree that the band's play has gotten a bit more technical, but there's still groovy shred passages, and the pace is simply unrelenting. Further detail info...guests on the album's last 3 songs: John Strachan (The Funeral Pyre) adds vocals on “Already Dead”, and Jared Monette (Arsonists Get All The Girls) does the same on the last two songs.

According to my info, the band toured throughout the USA on a somewhat continuous basis during the Fall of 2010 (coinciding somewhat with the release of the band's new album, of course), but they have no dates posted for the immediate future.

95/100

Tony.