Dying Fetus

Wrong One To Fuck With

Written by: RUB on 28/08/2017 20:37:36

It cannot come as a surprise to anyone that Dying Fetus isn’t music for the faint of heart. Five years since their last outing, their eighth studio album, “Wrong One to Fuck With”, tries to follow up on the brilliant “Reign Supreme” from 2012, and with a title like that, it is clear that Dying Fetus haven’t gone soft over the years. One instantly hears that not much has changed in the sound department — and that is a good thing in this scribe’s ears. They still blast through well-composed songs of technical death metal with plenty of heavy and brutal breakdowns, signature riffs and the well-known, almost indecipherable growling vocals (whether you like them or not) by the duo comprising bassist Trey Williams and the only remaining original member, guitarist John Gallagher. With vocals still revolving around problems with society, violence and brutality, the album is stuffed with complex songs; enough to satisfy both the diehard death metal fan, and fans of technical and groove-laden metal. Indeed, even though Dying Fetus is still a death metal band by heart, some of their songs do contain groove elements rarely seen in music of this nature.

‘Fetus starts out incredibly strong with what is perhaps the best song on the album; with “Fixated on Devastation”, we get a blistering kick-off, with fast-paced guitar full of complex licks and the drums firing on all cylinders. As quickly as it began, the song changes pace into a heavy and groovy bombardment laced with the well-known guttural growls, only to end on a high note mixing both death and groove metal towards the end. This song is just signature Dying Fetus — the structure of the song is brilliant, and especially the drum pattern takes the breath away. Continuing with “Panic Amongst the Herd”, we get a more straight-up death metal song à la Suffocation, which ‘Fetus once again shows how to master. And I could easily continue naming everything that’s awesome about each song, because they pretty much all contain something notable. Even “Weaken the Structure”, the weakest song on the album, has something — albeit very little — interesting about it.

How do you make it so that the 11 songs on the album don’t sound alike, you might ask? If your vocal range only spans from the very indecipherable (by Williams) to the very growled and raw (by Gallagher), you have to be able to distinguish your songs in some different way. Luckily, ‘Fetus has a knack for writing killer riffs and hooks that make most of the songs stand out in one way or another. Whether it is with well-timed breakdowns, clever drum patterns, changes in tempo or the combination of it all, you will find plenty of variety on “Wrong One to Fuck With” — perhaps, to the untrained ear, not on the first or second listen due to the vocals, but as you keep spinning the record, even those listeners will discover new details about the guitar or the drums, and that makes up for an interesting listen. Furthermore — and to this scribe’s liking — ‘Fetus does not fall in the same pit-trap that many metal bands tend to these days: the overuse of unnecessary solos just for the sake of ‘having a solo’. This isn’t something they particularly do; the band does have solos of course, but they don’t at any point feel forced and that is a huge thumb up in my book.

By now, if there should be any doubt, Dying Fetus underlines why they are one of the absolute heavyweights of today’s death metal scene. With the technical aspect, the groovy and heavy passages, and the knack for writing a great tune, “Wrong One to Fuck With” is probably as good as it gets. Unfortunately, not all of the songs stand out as much as the ones mentioned in this review (or in the recommendations below), even if they all have something to offer. If that would’ve been the case, this could’ve been a modern classic for a certainty. But this shouldn’t take anything away from Dying Fetus, because when talking about death metal, they are still not to be fucked with!

Download: Fixated on Devastation, Panic Amongst the Herd, Fallacy, Die with Integrity, Wrong One to Fuck With
For the fans of: Suffocation, Nile, Misery Index, Cryptopsy
Listen: Facebook

Release date 23.06.2017
Relapse Records

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