The Way Of Purity - The Majesty Of Your Becoming
The Way Of Purity – CD Review
The Majesty Of Your Becoming
CD Info
2015
Plastic Head Distribution
Activist Electrocore
11 Tracks
English Lyrics
The Way Of Purity isn’t a band with permanent members. It’s made up of musicians who work together to record albums promoting animal rights. The personnel change from one album to the next, and so does the musical style. Some of the musicians have appeared on more than one of the four albums released to date, but the main and perhaps only common element threading through all the recordings is a cry for mercy on behalf of non-human creatures. The Way Of Purity is the musical voice of the Animal Liberation Front.
“The Majesty Of Your Becoming” is completely unlike the first three albums, which were all built around death metal. Musically, the newest album is intentionally lighter and more pop-based than the previous works. The lyrics, however, are harshly and critically outspoken. Without Name, the anonymous bass player for the band in the latest line-up, has stated emphatically and unambiguously: “The music genre is just something we don't care about, just as we don’t care about anything which is not helping our war to save innocent lives. Creating more mass market oriented songs will give us the chance to reach more people and save more animals, simple as that. Everyone who disagrees with us can go to hell.”
Sonic Cathedral’s reviews often include quotes by band members or extracts from the album lyrics. This may be our first review that quotes a band’s manifesto. Here’s how The Way Of Purity describes itself:
The Way Of Purity doesn't show off with smart or cool band members. No names, no fancy photos, no effigy, no trendy musical influences and no nationality. No compromise, no way to talk or get to know us – we are NOTHING. We are a very real and solid message.
Most militant bands in the past have reached a superior level of strength through their message and faith. The Way Of Purity is different. The message about God intended as nature (animals and the perfection of their creation) is our faith, but the power for The Way Of Purity is a high level of inspiration, self control, and correction of human errors through the inspiration of the animal perfection.
We are the hand of God, we're here to bring the animals’ message to the wrongdoers in humanity. The voices we hear asked us to change things, giving us the chance of salvation by becoming the hand of God and finding the real way of purity.
In their elaboration of their manifesto, The Way Of Purity urges that the deliberate killing of any animal is a crime that should elevated to the iniquity of murdering a human. If you are less than pure Vegan, if you eat or use animal products, they damn you. They say the eating of meat is “illegitimate.”
That attitude doesn’t bother me as long as the band – the ad hoc assembly? – doesn’t resort to violence or actively encourage its followers to commit acts of criminal violence against anyone or anything. Like everyone I know, I love animals. Like almost everyone I know, I eat meat and wear a leather belt. If that makes me an accessory to murder in the eyes of The Way Of Purity, so be it. I listen to their music anyway. I also listen to Christian, Muslim and Satanic bands that seek to propagate belief systems I don’t share.
“The Majesty Of Your Becoming” is good music, and it’s performed very well. It’s not going to make you stop eating eggs or plant a pipe bomb in an abattoir. It may very well get your feet tapping and have you humming along to the melodies. I imagine it’s quite likely that some fans of this type of music won’t try the album or the band on principle. Moral extremism in any form doesn’t wash well in the musical universe.
The album is listed as “electrocore”. That’s not a genre name you hear every day. Presumably it’s intended to describe music constructed from electronic rock and metalcore or one of the other ’core styles of metal. If so, the album is not electrocore. It’s a blend of techno, dance, electronic pop and Gothic rock/metal. This track, Eleven, is representative of the album as a whole.
That does widen the potential audience. The first album, Crosscore (a CD released in 2010), is melodic death metal. The next release, the EP Biteback (2011), veered closer to pure death metal. Musically, it’s the hardest recording by The Way Of Purity. The Equate CD (2012) was melodic death again, but softened considerably by the use of clean female vocals – it’s something like the new work by The Agonist on many of the tracks.
If you’re already a fan of The Way Of Purity and/or death metal, “The Majesty Of Your Becoming” may come as a disappointment. It’s not aimed at you. I love many kinds and of styles of music, so this album doesn’t displease me at all. For what it is, it’s pleasant and easy listening, regardless of the condemnatory messages it pumps into my ears.
The names of the artists aren't important because they’re pseudonyms. Some websites claim to have identified the musicians and said which bands they played or play for. I won’t do that. It would be disrespectful and it could be prejudicial to a group of people who care deeply about the cause they support. I state openly, I shout it to the horizon, if a labor of love like “The Majesty Of Your Becoming” can achieve anything to ease the unnecessary suffering of animals, then I offer the personnel my support.
I can’t tell you if I’m looking forward to the next release by The Way Of Purity because I have absolutely no idea what type of music it will be or who’ll perform it.
Rating: 8/10.
Band’s Facebook
Band’s website
Band’s mission statement and philosophy at Animal Liberation Front:
http://www.animalliberationfront.com/Saints/Musicians/TheWayOfPurity.htm
