Single Slam – Death of the Rockstar by Within the Ruins (Halfway Human)

American metal band, Within the Ruins have released a new track called Death of  the Rockstar. With their new album, Halfway Human, not due for release through independent label eOne until March 3rd next year, its great for fans to get such an early glimpse. Halfway Human will be the band’s 5th full length album and follows on from their well received 2014 release Phenomena.

Coming in at just under 4 minutes long, Death of the Rockstar is a fast paced and heavy beast of a track. Starting with the muffled sound of a simple riff playing alongside fast drum beats, the song explodes into life after a few short seconds with the muffled effect disappearing. This sudden jump in volume also brings a jump in aggression as singer Tim Goergen joins in with his fast paced and angry vocals. There is clever use of subtle clean vocals in the background to add an extra dimension to the real catchy, drum heavy verses. The chorus is plenty heavy still too with a thumping riff and death metal styled vocals but a little bit more melody in the shape of backing vocals, both clean and shouted.

The stand out so far though is the insanely fast drumming from Kevin McGuill- it is impossibly fast and so impressive to listen to adding depth, rhythm and aggression in spades. It explodes straight into the second verse, without time for a quick breath, before a clever breakdown at the end of the verse with a heavy bass sound from Paolo Galang and a clever little guitar line over the darkest sounding vocals so far as they bellow out the song title. That falls straight back into the chorus again, which I really like a lot before a similar sounding breakdown, that could do without the weird effect it ends with, leads us into an excellent solo from Joe Cocchi. It is really, really good and there is plenty of it too.

Listen carefully here though as underneath that solo there is some absolutely jaw dropping drumming going on. The solo ends and there is another moment of good riffing that turns into unnecessary effects before it comes to an end with a blast of heavy drums and death metal shouts at the close.

Guitarist Joe Cocchi had the following statement released regarding the new song – “‘Death of the Rockstar’ stems from our distaste for the current state of the music industry. The song is straight forward and speaks for itself. We live in an era where mindlessness and fads now trump true art and creativity. The music industry is polluted. Please enjoy.”

A very, very good track which is packed full of great moments and expert musicianship. Heavy vocals, good riffs, catchy chorus, great solo and mind blowing drumming all blend perfectly together to make a really exciting song. There are a few points bridged by an odd sounding guitar effect that I personally could have done without but otherwise, there is loads to get excited about and I can’t wait to hear more from this album. Well done.

Check the song out for yourself on record label eOne’s YouTube channel and why not give the band a like or follow on Facebook or Twitter for more information on the band or their new album.

If you like the track, why not pre order it now?

Remember, support your metal or risk losing it!