Glass Casket is a band from North Carolina, a state in the United States where also Hopesfall and Undying are from. Glass Casket formed three years ago and We Are Gathered Here Today... is their debut album. Judging from how the guys look, you`d say they are likely to play poppy nu-metal, but hell no. This is fierce chaotic deathcore with some touches of metalcore. And, well, they do so quite nicely.

The first song `Pencil Lead Syringe` hammers away straight from the start, it is absolutely brutal, like stabbing someone to death with a table-leg.
The song continues in chaotic fashion with brutal grunts, seventeen different riffs, lethally beaten drums and a pack of breakdowns.
Guitarplay on We Are Gathered Here Today... is venomous, versatile and really, really low, like deathmetal. Drums are mostly double-kicked, angrily, with some original touches. And then there`s the vocals.
Adam Cody is the man`s name. On the picture on Abacus Recordings` website he looks like a guy who gets a football scolarship to a major university and the homecoming queen as a girlfriend. But the way this man behaves on this record it`s more like he`ll have the homecoming queen for diner. His vocals range from really low grunts (often), to `normal` grunts (often), talking bits (a couple of times), to clean singing (once).
On the album, it`s only at the halfway point the listener gets any rest.

Song 5, `Cellar Door` is an interlude that allows you to catch your breath for 59 seconds. Then, we blast off again in all directions with `Chew Your Fingers`. However, it is in this song that we first encounter another talent of Glass Casket; a slow, string plucking, non-distorted guitar bit, with of course the monstrous voice of Cody over it. Beautifully done. That tranfers into a slow, majestic, yet slightly short guitar solo. Then it`s on with the violence...
Song 7 is all anger, chaos and death again. Next up we have `In Between The Sheets`, the highlight of the album. Meshuggah-like odd rhythms, death metal guitars, pacing drums, low grunts, and then... Melody. All of a sudden, yet not out of place. Slight, smart drums, slick guitars, nice notes. Then onto a solo, accompanied by clean vocals. A truly moving part.

The last song I don`t like so much, as by now your ears want a break from all the hammering. And there it is, this band`s main problem. The wearing out of ears. This record would`ve been truly groundbreaking if they had put some more parts in the music like in songs 6 and 8. It would`ve completely tied the album together. Now, it`s almost all noise and loudness, where there was a more balanced way out.
If on their next effort they focus a bit more on those precious bits of beauty, they will have a masterpiece on their hands. I know they can do it.