Under The Influence #67: Anticline on “The Reject of Humanity” by I, Valiance!

In 2015 Melbourne, Australians I, Valiance dropped a bombshell with “The Reject Of Humanity“. The Deathcore collective had been tearing it up since 2012’s debut “Prometheus” with bone crushingly heavy breakdowns, augmented riffs and the kind of killer solos that you wouldn’t usually associate with any act in the “core” category. Fresh ideas in each set of new material and the kind of heaviness that makes bands like Reflections blush before they take a second look gained them a reputation and when “The Reject Of Humanity” hit with progressive, symphonic and even jazz-influenced sections of respite, it was nothing short of jaw dropping. The programming is exceptionally well integrated, the bass offers a plentiful amount of snap and the riffs are non stop. If only we could have been down under to see them play these cuts with Boris The Blade or Crowbar…

Anticline comment: “As a group and after a lot of discussion, we’ve decided to pick I, Valiance’s “The Reject of Humanity” EP for this. It may come as a surprise for us to pick something that resembles deathcore more than hardcore or metalcore, but this EP is something we all grew up with and it strengthened our love for heavy music in general. It’s super creative and manages to stand out from the rest of the crowd, something we’ve tried to achieve in our own respective genre. The riffs are mindblowing. The breakdowns are crushing. Mark Poida’s vocals are unearthly. It has aged flawlessly with the replay value infinite. For us, this release was the pinnacle of deathcore and will not be beat. If you haven’t checked this out, we cannot recommend it enough. Truly a hidden Australian gem the rest of the world seemingly missed out on.”