Betraying the Martyrs are a French metal band who gained popularity in the Deathcore scene with their debut album ‘Breathe In Life’, released in 2010. Since then, their popularity increased across Europe, with appearances at Full Force Festival and Graspop. They even covered ‘Let It Go’ from the Frozen soundtrack, which amassed over 7 million plays on Spotify. It helped their popularity soar, and now they’re onto their fourth album, ‘Rapture’, which came out last week.

Betraying the Martyrs have crafted a formula of creating big downtuned metalcore numbers, and this continues on ‘Rapture.’ The riffs are colossal, with the filtered screams on ‘The Iron Gates’ making the listener feel like they’re in the depths of Hell. The clean vocals are reminiscent of Avenged Sevenfold, while the piano gives things a cinematic feel. It shows that the band aren’t afraid to think outside the box. ‘Parasite’ is also crushingly brutal, however while the vocals are extremely powerful, they overshadow the guitar in the mix.

‘The Sound of Letting You Go’ is one of the more tender tracks, featuring a beautiful piano and equally beautiful clean vocals. ‘The Swarm’ on the other hand shows that they can still make heads bang at breakneck speed. Some of the songs on the record sound generic and formulaic, but on the whole, Betraying the Martyrs make ‘Rapture’ work very well. The album will please their existing fanbase, and furthermore shows that the new ideas work a treat alongside the powerful production.

Words by Ermis Madikopoulos