Knoxville, TN · deathcore · death metal

Whitechapel

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Knoxville deathcore that grew genuinely melodic without losing any of the weight underneath — Phil Bozeman's range now the band's superpower.

Whitechapel was founded in Knoxville, Tennessee in February 2006 by vocalist Phil Bozeman and guitarist Ben Savage, soon joined by guitarist Alex Wade, bassist Gabe Crisp and a drummer. The band took its name from the Whitechapel district of London, where Jack the Ripper committed his murders. After original guitarist Brandon Cagle left following a motorcycle accident, Zach Householder replaced him, and that guitar line-up has remained constant since 2007.

The band's debut, The Somatic Defilement, appeared in 2007 on UK and North American label deals, and later that year Whitechapel signed to Metal Blade Records, where it remains. Its second album, This Is Exile, released in 2008, reached No. 118 on the Billboard 200 and established the band as one of the genre's defining acts, a status reinforced by the 2012 self-titled record, which entered the chart at No. 47.

Subsequent albums climbed steadily: Our Endless War reached No. 10 on the Billboard 200 in 2014, selling around 16,000 copies in its first week, and Mark of the Blade followed in 2016 to wider critical acclaim. It was on Mark of the Blade that Bozeman began adding clean singing alongside his low growls, a shift that carried into The Valley in 2019, which drew on his own childhood and reached No. 143 on the chart.

Later records, including Kin, pushed further into melody and atmosphere while keeping the down-tuned riffing and blast beats intact, with The Valley's subject matter continuing to shape the band's recent writing. Their newest album, Hymns in Dissonance, was released in March 2025. Loudwire has grouped Whitechapel among deathcore's "Big Four," alongside Job for a Cowboy, Thy Art Is Murder and Suicide Silence.

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deathcoredeath metal