{"id":292089,"date":"2025-10-10T13:54:10","date_gmt":"2025-10-10T13:54:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/292089\/"},"modified":"2025-10-10T13:54:10","modified_gmt":"2025-10-10T13:54:10","slug":"extortionist-stare-into-the-seething-wounds-review","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/292089\/","title":{"rendered":"Extortionist – Stare into the Seething Wounds Review"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"Although my love for metal has its origins in the -core movement, it\u2019s largely passed me by in the years since. New artists come and go, and the next thing I know, my favorite metalcore songs were all released in 2015 or earlier. Extortionist<\/strong> is also one of those bands I neglected, but when I first heard them, I immediately clocked it was not The Contortionist<\/strong>. With no prog in sight, Extortionist<\/strong> is known for their blend of deathcore, metalcore, and nu-metal, which has me running for the Tums right away. Oh, and they\u2019re also known for supplementing their open snare tone by assaulting a metal beer keg with a baseball bat \u2013 beer to wash the antacid down, I guess. Anyway, here\u2019s Extortionist<\/strong>\u2019s fourth full-length.<\/p>\n

If you clued in that Stare into the Seething Wounds looks like a Korn<\/strong> album cover, complete with warped symbols of childhood fed through the Tim Burton-on-weed machine, you\u2019re dead-on. More than other \u201cnu\u201d acts like ten56.<\/strong> or Motionless in White<\/strong>, Idaho\u2019s Extortionist<\/strong> sounds like these \u201con the kob\u201d legends or Alice in Chains<\/strong> in its more subdued moments \u2013 complete with wonky guitar effects and vocalist Ben Hoagland\u2019s best impression of Jonathan Davis. However, its less restrained identity enacts a brand of brutality seen in Bodysnatcher<\/strong> or The Last Ten Seconds of Life<\/strong>, weaponizing belligerent roars that recall Upon a Burning Body<\/strong>\u2019s Danny Leal atop crushing breakdowns and thick riffs. Layering nu-metal\u2019s wonky effects and lazy vocals with deathcore\u2019s fat-bottomed tone abuse one song after another with the band\u2019s signature drum production, the two faces of Extortionist<\/strong> are initially appealing, but by the end of Stare into the Seething Wounds, you\u2019ll want to slap them both.<\/p>\n

Stare Into The Seething Wounds by Extortionist<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

The subtler side of Extortionist<\/strong> is a more atmospheric and deadlier version of Korn<\/strong>\u2019s melodies and Nirvana<\/strong>\u2019s watery effects, focusing on drawling baritone vocals and short-lived random explosions into metalcore chugs. Achieving a sort of sonic haze through these means, the potential resemblance to Deftones<\/strong> in its layers of opaque instrumentals and minor chord progressions is a tempting one that ultimately falls flat. The dynamics are simply not there, as Extortionist<\/strong> will shift from the Davis drawl to a chuggy deathcore breakdown with Hoagland\u2019s vocals providing the only crescendo. If heavier combinations of \u201cFreak on a Leash\u201d and \u201cCome As You Are\u201d sound like a good time to you, these tracks might satisfy (\u201cThe Break I Couldn\u2019t Mend,\u201d \u201cSubmit to Skin,\u201d \u201cDopamine,\u201d \u201cLow Roads,\u201d \u201cDo You See It?\u201d) \u2013 even if the band at large sorely lacks the charisma or songwriting chops to pull it off. These tracks end up being dull interludes between the slightly more interesting core expos\u00e9s.<\/p>\n

\"\"If being bored to tears is not your game, Extortionist<\/strong>\u2019s numbskull brutality might appeal to you. Channeling a nu-metal-influenced, deathcore-forward breed of intensity that recalls early Crystal Lake<\/strong> or Alpha Wolf<\/strong>, the straightforwardness is at least unpretentious. Even then, some timing issues, usually tempo disparities between breakdown callouts and the breakdowns themselves, keep some tracks from achieving the soundtrack to the pit they so desperately strive for (\u201cCycle of Sin,\u201d \u201cStarve\u201d). Even the more bulletproof metalcore\/deathcore tracks (\u201cAftermath of Broken Glass,\u201d \u201cDetriment,\u201d \u201cInvisible Scars (Part III)\u201d) offer no reason to listen to Extortionist<\/strong> compared to the plethora of -core rip-offs \u2013 these tracks are fast and solidly composed, featuring bone-crushing breakdowns but that\u2019s about it: better incarnations exist in early The Plot in You<\/strong> and Loathe<\/strong>. A blessing and a curse, drummer and keg abuser Vince Alvarez\u2019s performance is the clear highlight amid the sea of boredom and monotony, but that signature production and reverb manage to inflate the mix to something that clashes with the breakdowns and riffs, feeling lazy in the busy, overfilled attack.<\/p>\n

For a very bloated forty-eight minutes, Extortionist<\/strong> blurs the lines between nu-metal, metalcore, and deathcore \u2013 their stark dichotomy of grungy drawling and brutalizing breakdowns ultimately boils down to boring and monotonous. However, if you ever forget that this is deathcore or metalcore, there will be a ten-ton breakdown to remind you. If you ever forget this is nu-metal, Hoagland will growl some off-beat \u201coh-oh,\u201d \u201cfuck,\u201d or \u201cyeah\u201d faster than you can say \u201cda-boom-da-da-mmm-dum-na-ee-ma.\u201d All this to say, maybe I should have left Extortionist<\/strong> back in 2015 \u2013 peel away the cringe and novelty of Stare into the Seething Wounds and what looks so strong, so delicate.<\/p>\n

Rating:<\/strong> 1.5\/5.0
DR:<\/strong> 5 | Format Reviewed:<\/strong> 320 kb\/s mp3
Label:<\/strong> Unique Leader Records<\/a>
Websites:<\/strong> extortionist.bandcamp.com<\/a> | extortionist.co<\/a> | facebook.com\/ExtortionistNW<\/a>
Releases Worldwide:<\/strong> October 10th, 2025<\/p>\n

\n\tGive in to Your Anger:<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Although my love for metal has its origins in the -core movement, it\u2019s largely passed me by in…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":292090,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[132112,1444,8828,149645,18521,149646,3030,118410,40952,171,149647,23649,16096,149648,149649,136376,975,26951,67919,141230,2290,11853,149650,149651,149652,149653,149654,149655,67,132,149656,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-292089","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-music","8":"tag-1-5","9":"tag-1444","10":"tag-alice-in-chains","11":"tag-alpha-wolf","12":"tag-american-metal","13":"tag-bodysnatcher","14":"tag-crystal-lake","15":"tag-deathcore","16":"tag-deftones","17":"tag-entertainment","18":"tag-extortionist","19":"tag-grunge","20":"tag-korn","21":"tag-loathe","22":"tag-metalcore","23":"tag-motionless-in-white","24":"tag-music","25":"tag-nirvana","26":"tag-nu-metal","27":"tag-oct25","28":"tag-review","29":"tag-reviews","30":"tag-stare-into-the-seething-wounds","31":"tag-ten56","32":"tag-the-contortionist","33":"tag-the-last-ten-seconds-of-life","34":"tag-the-plot-in-you","35":"tag-unique-leader-records","36":"tag-united-states","37":"tag-unitedstates","38":"tag-upon-a-burning-body","39":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115350212859491788","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/292089","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=292089"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/292089\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/292090"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=292089"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=292089"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=292089"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}