BLACKWATER DROWNING is a Melodic Death/Metalcore band hailing from North Carolina, PA. They formed in 2014, and have released two EPs to date. This album they present today is their first full-length, and contains eight tracks. "The Filth Element" is the first. Following a dark and creepy entrance, harsh vocals paint the picture of doom and gloom. In the chorus, cleans mix in a unique way. The harsh vocals continue, and go even deeper, while the cleans sound melancholy. "Abyssal" features a more Death Metal sound, complete with heavy guitars and pig squeals. The clean vocals connect fairly well with the chorus but almost sound forced when compared to the previous sound.

"Mortal Coil" is another doomy offering with plenty of heavy aggression, mostly from the guitars, drums and harsh vocals. The cleans connect a little better here, but the album sounds a bit overly thought out in terms of the structure. "Saint" is another song that sounds a lot like the previous three. At this point in an album, you should start to get a good idea of the band's identity, rather than hearing four songs that sound a lot alike. "Snakejuice" is unfortunately a reminder that the band only has one trick up their sleeve. Pure brutality will only take you so far. "The Caged" is yet another repetitive song, and I am running out of things to say here.

"Aberrant Leaves" begins with some dissonance in the guitars, but turns back on that same path that the other songs rely on too much. "Voyager" closes the album. It's the first song the features more of the band's personality. Clean guitars open the song, with clean vocals, and I like the structure here. It's a shame they couldn't write four or five other like this one. What started off as a promising sound pretty quickly turned to an eight-track album with nearly the same structure in every song. It's "paint by the numbers" MeloDeath, where the verses are harsh and the chorus has cleans. At first, this method seemed a bit unique, because the cleans were melancholy while the harsh ones raged. But after the third song, it became apparent that this was the method they were sticking with, and it bogged down the album quite a bit.