Over the last 5 or so years, Deathcore bands have been springing up from out of nowhere. In the wake of bands like WHITECHAPEL and EMMURE came a swathe of mediocre bands who were, essentially, carbon copies of each other. The vast majority of it lacks originality and soul, and has become incredibly predictable. Italy's DEPRECIATE THE LIAR, sadly, fall into this category. Their first album, "Dethrone Humanity" is filled with plenty of the clichés that are associated with the genre, especially breakdowns and guitar lines which try too hard to be incredibly heavy without having any serious hooks.

Overall, this album has a very strong DESPISED ICON influence about it. But whereas DESPISED ICON were the innovators of the genre, these guys are, more or less, your average, run-of-the-mill Deathcore act. The vast majority of this album is not unique in the slightest. The album's title track sums up just how much this album embraces this genres stereotypical motifs; it's a bit forgettable, and isn't original. One area in which this album excels is through the drumming; on songs like "Vangance for the Betrayed" in particular, the drumming is pretty good. And on songs such as "There Shall Be No Mercy", the guitars step away from the stereotypical chugging to showcase something that resembles a riff. Even though this album is quite generic, there is promise here, and it is obvious that this is a band still trying to get a firm grasp on what exactly they want to sound like.

I feel that I've been just a bit too harsh on these guys. I am not the biggest Deathcore fan in the world, and maybe I'm just generalising. Bands of any genre can be guilty of falling into the trap of sounding like the vast majority of other bands out there. Despite the fact that I absolutely love Black Metal and Death Metal, I have to admit that there are plenty of bands in those genres that try and rehash old BURZUM or DEICIDE ideas rather than come out with something genuinely different and interesting. And it's important to remember that this is the band's first full length record, and it is likely that they will find their own sound at some point in the near future. After all, EVILE's debut album focused on a lot of the generic motifs of Thrash, but the next two albums they wrote gained them a huge following and lots of fans. Hopefully, the next DEPRECIATE THE LIAR record will be their very own "Infected Nations".