WHITECHAPEL's 'Our Endless War' Cracks U.S. Top 10

"Our Endless War", the fifth full-length album from Knoxville, Tennessee metallers WHITECHAPEL, sold around 16,000 copies in the United States in its first week of release to debut at position No. 10 on The Billboard 200 chart.

The self-titled fourth CD from WHITECHAPEL opened with around 9,200 units back in June 2012 to land at No. 47. The band's previous CD, "A New Era Of Corruption", premiered with around 10,600 copies in June 2010 to enter the chart at No. 43.

"Our Endless War" was released on April 29 via Metal Blade. A ruthlessly honed effort that refuses to compromise on brutality, it is also by far the band's most streamlined, atmospheric, and emotionally powerful release, pushing every aspect of their sound to the next level.

"In typical WHITECHAPEL fashion, this CD takes the sound we have been developing over the past 8 years of our career and pushes it to new levels," says guitarist Alex Wade.

"We want each record we release to sound different, and this one is no exception.

"With dashes of every record we have done so far mixed with the intensity of a new sound, this record is sure to please fans of WHITECHAPEL, old and new."

Having progressed with every record, on "Whitechapel" the band took a stylistic leap forward, garnering a whole army of new fans and greater critical respect in the process. This determination is immediately apparent. Having started to "seriously" write in February of 2013, the album was a year in the making, the band letting the writing develop organically while putting everything under a microscope, working harder on perfecting every song than they ever had before.

Famed for their three-guitar lineup, the band has always packed a crushing sonic punch, but on "Our Endless War", they take greater advantage of this than previously. Frequently, the seven-stringers build dramatic, incredibly heavy walls of thrilling noise through interweaving their parts, making for a sonic richness that pulls listeners even further into the songs. As with all of WHITECHAPEL's releases, the heaviness does not just stem from the music but Phil Bozeman's lyrics, showing characteristic diversity across the record's ten tracks.

When it came to tracking the album the band considered no one beyond Mark Lewis, who helmed "Whitechapel".

"Making the self-titled record went so well, we loved the way it came out, our label loved the way it came out, and our fans kept telling us that it was our best sounding record so it would have been stupid not to work with him again!" laughs Wade. For the artwork, the band turned again to Aaron Marsh, who supplied "Whitechapel" with its stark, arresting imagery, but again they wanted to push things to the next level.

"With the sound maturing, we felt like the artwork needed to reflect that," says Wade. "We also introduced a new logo — our old logo is classic WHITECHAPEL, and that's not something we plan on getting rid of, but as the band grows and changes we felt like we needed the logo to represent the maturity of this new WHITECHAPEL."

"Our Endless War" track listing:

01. Rise
02. Our Endless War
03. The Saw is the Law
04. Mono
05. Let Me Burn
06. Worship the Digital Age
07. How Times Have Changed
08. Psychopathy
09. Blacked Out
10. Diggs Road