Hymns in Dissonance is a slab of deathcore so relentless, confident, and monstrously produced that it may well be the heaviest metal record of 2025 - and we’re only a few months in. This is Whitechapel throwing down the gauntlet after years of drifting toward more progressive territory. They’ve come roaring back into the gore-drenched world they helped create, but they’re not just paying homage to their past. While Lorna Shore may have captured the internet’s attention, Hymns In Dissonance is Phil Bozeman and co. reminding everyone who built the damn temple in the first place. From the opening seconds blast beats erupt at inhuman speeds, as Phil plants his flag as one of the great vocalists of this generation of extreme metal.

The cover art alone - a skull with six eye sockets - lets you know you’re in for something completely unhinged, and the lyrics are drenched in sacrilege. Somehow, even now, metal is getting even heavier, and it never buckles under its own weight. It’s horrifying, but it’s also fun. There’s space to move, to headbang and groove. Even as the drums fire off at neck-snapping pace, the breakdowns land with satisfying, spacious clarity and impeccable pacing. This is modern metal done right. It’s not a record built around hooks or standout singles. Hymns in Dissonance isn’t trying to be catchy. It’s trying to obliterate. The whole album is constructed like a warpath - every section trying to outdo the last. One moment you’re inside a cavernous, reverb-drenched doom howl; the next you’re being whipped by lightning fast blast beats; and seconds later, you’re dropped into a slow-motion metalcore breakdown. It’s not a series of “songs” so much as an overwhelming furnace, and that’s exactly the thrill.