Album Review: I Declare War -We Are Violent People By Nature

This album is living proof that life imitates art, and vice versa. The furious, hateful music reflects a world being crumbled by politics, propoganda, and society itself. Hope gives in to misanthropy and despair. The lyrics are spoken by both the forsaken and the forsaker.  Having been betrayed by our fellow man, we exact revenge, and thus continues the vicious cycle of violence which will ultimately be our demise.

Vocalist Jamie Hanks has a formidable range. This is most notably apparent in the track Shadowman, whose low pitched vocals contrasted so radically with the higher gutterals that many fans mistakenly assumed a guest vocalist was incorporated. The album notes, however, indicate that the only guest vocalist appearance is Landon Tewers from The Plot In You, who is featured on the track A Dark Hole To Crawl In. The title track, We Are Violent People By Nature, is relatively down tempo, with the instruments getting more melancholy, but the dirty vocals and heavy refrains keeping things brutal.

The album art has rich symbolism behind its deceptively simple design. A dead tree embodies the archetype of nature, as well as mortality. This represents the notion that human nature is self destructive. The ravens are carrion eaters, thus reinforcing the motifs of death, decay, and ruin. (Fun fact: A group of ravens is called a murder.)

Throughout the album, the band accomplishes the difficult feat of maintaining equilibrium between drums, bass, guitar, and the human voice. The sound quality is top notch. Although it is extremely combative and defeatist, this album is a very refined, sophisticated example of deathcore, just as profound as it is heavy. We Are Violent People By Nature, along with the rest of I Declare War’s discography, is available for purchase on Amazon or iTunes.  Four stars out of five.