"When a Demon Defiles a Witch" Released: February 20, 2019
"Hickory Creek" Released: March 21, 2019
"Doom Woods" Released: June 25, 2020
The Valley is the seventh studio album by American
deathcore band
Whitechapel. It was released through
Metal Blade Records on March 29, 2019 to very positive reviews.[4][5][6][7] On April 14, 2020, an acoustic version of "Hickory Creek" was released. It marks the first Whitechapel song to include entirely clean vocals.
Loudwire named it one of the 50 best metal albums of 2019.[8]
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, passed away in 1995[10] when Phil was ten,[11] while his mother struggled with
alcoholism and
schizophrenia;[12] "When a Demon Defiles a Witch" is an interpretation of one of her visions she wrote down in a journal entry.[13] She eventually remarried, but Bozeman's step-father turned out to be abusive towards both of them: Bozeman has called him a "predator"[14] and holds him responsible for introducing his mother to
crack cocaine,[10] which lead to her eventual death[11] via
drug overdose.[15][10]
The band's follow-up album, Kin, continues the story.[16]