Year: 2023
Total Time: 25:38
Label: Translation Loss Records

ALL OUT WAR was formed at New York City in 1990 and their discography includes seven full-length albums, two EPs and three splits. It was the year 1998 and their second album, “For Those Who Were Crucified”, with which the band made an outbreak and their reputation grew in the genre of extreme metal, as the combination of New York’s Hardcore, with the influences from SLAYER but also from BOLT THROWER managed to touch the feeling of Death Metal as well. We should mentioned that at that time, Deathcore started to grow. A scene that was marked by the French pioneers KICKBACK with their great album “Forever War”, which was released on 1997. So, it has created a breeding ground for other bands to follow…

Unfortunately, the future for ALL OUT WAR was not equivalent to the quality of “For Those Who Were Crucified” and as the years passed by, their reputation faded and their releases nothing more to give. The band is releasing new music every 2-3 years and this year the time came for another new release. The album is entitled “Celestial Rot” and, from the first announcement, I was curious if something better would come up. The album consists of 10 new songs with a total duration near twenty six minutes, a characteristic that is very common in Hardcore bands. I wouldn’t necessarily say that the short duration is something negative, because in their musical style the band can be easily become boring so ALL OUT WAR took a wise decision. In “Celestial Rot” I wouldn’t say that there are any big surprises, as the core of their sound is the Hardcore/Deathcore with influences from SLAYER. Also, in this new record ALL OUT WAR chose to add some Black Metal elements in their sound, without having a great success. Even if Black Metal has the unique abillity to be absorbed by many genres of extreme music, there is none until now that mixed it with Hardcore and had a nice result. So “Celestial Rot” couldn’t be an exception of that.

Overall, the album has no difference from the band’s previous albums and does not escape from the mediocre quality of others band’s releases. The album has nothing special to give and, after a couple of auditions, I don’t think that someone will choose to listen to it again. Personally, I think that ALL OUT WAR made their explosion with the first two releases and unfortunately failed to fulfill the expectations they created. As a conclusion we can say that with “Celestial Rot” the band just added to their career another release of no interest.

Rating: 5/10
Editor: Nikos Manousis
Related Link: ALL OUT WAR – Facebook Page