On April 14, 2020, an acoustic version of "Hickory Creek" was released. It marks the first Whitechapel song to include entirely clean vocals.
Composition
The Valley is a concept album based on vocalist and writer Phil Bozeman's childhood; the title is a reference to Hardin Valley, Tennessee, where Bozeman grew up.[9] His father, Michael Gary Bozeman, suddenly passed away on December 30, 1995,[10] when Phil was ten.[11] His mother, Theresa, already struggled with alcoholism and schizophrenia;[12] the album's opening song, "When a Demon Defiles a Witch", is an interpretation of one of her visions she wrote down in a journal entry.[13] Theresa eventually remarried, but Bozeman's step-father was abusive toward both of them,[12] with Phil referring to the man as a "predator"[14] and holding him responsible for introducing his mother to crack cocaine.[10] Theresa eventually died from a drug overdose in 2000.[10][15]
The Valley continues Bozeman's experiments with clean vocals,[4][13] and slightly distances Whitechapel from their signature deathcore style.[4] The vocals on the fourth track, "Hickory Creek", are almost exclusively sung.[7] As a whole, the record has been variously described as deathcore,[1]progressive metal,[2] and groove metal.[3] The band's follow-up album, Kin, continues Bozeman's story,[16] and features much more extensive use of singing.
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