Wetwork

The first release from David Gold’s (Woods of Ypres) Krankenhaus would be a strong and encouraging beginning for any label. The fury and complexity with which this record proceeds will be enough to draw a good bit of attention from all sorts of different incarnations of metal-heads. Wetwork’s brutality and technicalities are reminiscent of Cryptopsy while the more standard invocations of death metal are akin to Deicide, many riffs occasionally delving into Death’s affinity for peculiar melodies. The intro foreshadows recurring synthetic vocal parts that occasionally intercept the low orc scowl vocalising a professed "theology evolved from the perspective that organised religion is the disguised manifestation of hypocrisy.” On the whole, these parts give the album a faintly industrial atmosphere, hinting at the amount of thought put into making this record conceptually coherent. They hold their own as a proficient and compelling band, creating a solid and creative record as a whole, but fail to go above and beyond previously chartered territory. Essentially, Synod is nothing particularly spectacular. This isn’t to say that distinguishment will elude them forever; they just need to define their own sound a little further.