Within Destruction
Yokai

Being a big fan of his work especially with Abiogenesis, as soon as I discovered that the good Francesco Filigoi had "joined" Within Destruction, a combo devoted to a harsh and extreme Death Metal/Brutal/Slam, I couldn't help but be pleased, eagerly anticipating a possible release in the near future.

Anything I would have expected except to find myself facing a work like "Yokai", an album that pleasantly surprised yours truly, and you might say, "no s***!" given the premises, and which instead polarized fans and the industry press, for a simple reason: not being the classic 2020 Deathcore CD.

Don't get me wrong, there's everything you would hear in a Deathcore/Brutal/Slam album today, but the band has wisely inserted completely different elements like Hip Hop/Trap into their color palette, making the album a deadly cocktail of completely different elements from one another.

And yes, you heard correctly: Hip Hop and Trap.

Two genres that I generally hate, but which in the context they find themselves in at the moment, greatly enhance the listening experience (who would have thought?).

Not considering the first and last track, practically an intro and an outro, the album expands in its entirety by alternating moments of unheard-of violence, breath-taking guitar, vocal, and drum technicalities, with "trappy" interludes with really fitting vocal lines by various guests, one above all, the feat. on "Harakiri", one of the most successful tracks of the whole album.

Despite the probably programmed drums, yet "natural" and well-written, despite the digital bass rarely audible during listening, the album really defends itself well with very enjoyable and above all, fun tracks (in a good way): the powerful "Yokai" and "Kings of Darkness" (a particularly well-done track), the trilogy "Harakiri", "No Way Out" and "Malevolent", each heavier than the other, the super catchy (and my absolute favorite track) "Hate Me", up to the ultra-experimental "B4NGB4NG!!", where Rap, Hip Hop, Trap, and Dance music intersect without seeming like a failed experiment.

In short, the album works: I'll say more, it represents one of the few examples of courageous and avant-garde Extreme Metal, presenting the usual genre clichés, but with wisdom and intelligence.

Any flaws? I could say that the tracks are well amalgamated even though they have a unique personality in their dimension, but overall, it can be noticed that the work as a whole is very fragmented and with "little" artistic cohesion, something that can be both a good thing and a bad thing, and in this case, it doesn't compromise the listening experience too much.

Moral of the story, if you're a fan of uncompromising and no-frills Death Metal, this isn't an album for you; but if you're an open-minded person with varied listening habits, you'll find in "Yokai" a beautiful and above all fun album for your ears.