So, what happened? Honestly, a lot of it comes down to the middle third of the album. Those three songs, alongside “A Monument Encased in Ash” and “Epic: A Chorus of Obliteration”, are exactly what make this album pop with bopping beats, grooves smoother than a freshly sanded table and riffs that set everything ablaze. The thing with this album is that the album works at its best when it’s focused on a sound – like “Hell Can’t Stop Us Now” being so ridiculously upbeat that it just feels fucking good, or “From the Mouth of Gath Comes Terror” burning your face off with some molten riffing, or “Laid to Rest” with its soulfulness (one of few times where the ballad is a highlight and a great song in its own right).
There’s no reason to pretend the “Your Name is” songs are all that great, but they do summarize the album rather well. A quick burst of angry riffing, just to get the frustration of creating something out there before getting back to business with the upbeat and triumphant “Your Name is Victory” and the sobering balladry of “Laid to Rest”. I mentioned “Your Name is Defeat” above, and really, even if it feels a bit unfinished, its short length ends up working in its favor. There’s a lot going for this album that could easily easily EASILY put it up there with the scene’s greats. More forceful riffing and harsher vocals creating heavier joints offsets the Simple Plan meets Shadows Fall affectations I mentioned earlier. You get songs like “From the Mouth of Gath Comes Terror” and “Your Name is Defeat” where they show off their more aggressive leanings. Songs like “Hell Can’t Stop Us Now” and “Epic: A Chorus of Obliteration” are so unabashedly poppy – particularly in the case of the latter’s ridiculously bouncy composition – that even a decade and a half later, their melodies still haven’t left my head. Having started as a pop punk band, The Showdown integrate this sound well into a more whiskey-tinged melodic metalcore framework. There’s a lot going for it that positively screeches “classic” – namely, how it starts off with the kind of bang most bands wish they could start their albums off with. A Chorus of Obliteration is the album that could.
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