Back with a vengeance, Whispers have brought their blend of hardcore and metal in their self dubbed “Bangkok Evilcore” style on their new record Yom-Ma-Lok. Since 2014, the band have been ripping through the heavy music scene of Southeast Asia. Releasing their EP Narok Bon Din in 2021 showcasing a heavy assault of unbridled riffs and breakdowns that hit like a club to the face. Now signed to the ever-increasing hardcore label Flatspot Records, the band are ready to continue with their all out attack on listeners.
The album opens with the track “Bangkok Evilcore,” named appropriately after their self-described style of music. The song begins somewhat softer and a bit dissonant, but after a few seconds, it starts chugging right into their usual blend of heavy riffs, even adding some guitar harmonies that make this opener feel like something you’d find on a Bolt Thrower record. Transitioning seamlessly into “A Choice For Survival,” you start to get a more refined feeling of what you’ll be getting with this album. Pulling out riffs and breakdowns to keep you engaged and energized throughout the first two and half minutes, it tricks you into thinking its time to calm down for a second only to kick back in with an almost suffocating guitar tone.
For Whispers fans who have been wanting some more elements of metal then look no further than “Close your eyes.” The beginning of this song has a lot more aspects of hardcore, but you’ll hardly notice the transition into its chorus filled with threats and some pretty amazing guitar solo work you wouldn’t expect to find on this album.
“Wisenheimer (you were never one of us)” is arguably the perfect blend of genres on this album. It starts off slow with some good riffs metal fans can headbang to before fully tearing into a hardcore track. But just when you think you know how this song and dance will go, you get thrown some thrash elements for a few seconds that fit so perfectly in between verses. The audial beating finally slows down one more time to let the gang vocals shout out before kicking into a breakdown that makes you want to slam your fist into the ground in primal frenzy.
The album closes out with the title track “Yom-Ma-Lok,” meaning “world of death people,” and frankly I can’t think of a better way to describe this outro, featuring the same dissonance and calm from the opening only now with ghoulish cackles that sound like something you’d find better suited for a black metal album. Once the double bass kicks in, though, you are subjected to layer upon layer of banshee-like howls warning you of the horrors to come., before finally returning to some acoustic guitar and dark atmosphere signifying your fate as you fall deeper and deeper into the abyss.
