Formed in 2005 Dr. Acula have released a couple of albums and E.P.’s eventually going through line up changes and finding a home with the Victory Records label. On February 15th the band dropped their latest release, Slander.

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, Hardcore is an acquired taste not meant for everybody. Fortunately there is a sense of commercial friendliness to Dr. Acula’s latest release. By commercial I mean the more accepted metal acts out there like Korn, Deftones, etc (kind of). At its core the band remains loyal to their Deathcore roots offering up brutal drums, grinding guitars, vicious growling vocals, and the lyrical content isn’t going to aspire to a radio friendly level. Some of the content here is downright dirty but if you’ve heard any of the bands previous work you won’t be surprised by what you find here. Again, not for everyone.

So what’s so great about the album. Sometimes you come across bands in this genre that are all noise. They simply scream and holler over clumsy fast as you can go beats and blaring unfocused guitar work, not so here. Dr. Acula’s beats are precise, even when their switching up the flow of the music in the middle of a song, going from hardcore to hip hop beats, or dropping in 8 bit sound bites from their favorite video games. Its not all a barrage of noise either as, like I said, some of the guitar sound reminds me of the heavier deeper bass/guitar sounds of Korn or the build up and release of speedy chords from Deftones. Much props to their drummer who manages to flow with ease through every change up, rise to the occasion on every blast of adrenaline filled hypercharge. The only thing that gets in the way of the flow of the album are the various intro’s to a majority of the songs. I understand their purpose but after a couple of listens that purpose becomes invalid. Its just a brutal album that lives up to the death core name. Unfortunately I’ve seen bands this fantastic simply come and go without much fanfare so if your fans of hardcore or death core you might want to give this band a listen and offer up you support so they can make their music and lay the foundations for future generations of hardcore players to do their thing. As always final judgment is yours. Enjoy.