I guess we’re into shitshow year two and the masses are in isolation getting down with their creative “badselves”!
Not less than ten months ago I reviewed the blisteringly gnarly debut album The Dead Are Screaming [2020] from Aussie death metal legends Werewolves.
Stepping upon the steps of the capital to cough, splutter and spit in our faces for round two of the hate-fueled riot, the punishment is as unrelenting and devastating on What A Time To Be Alive as you would expect from this trio of madmen.
Opener “I Don’t Like You” is a perfect summation of how some of us feel about our human nature, the intent of those who live in the same realm with one another and the nauseous emotional disconnect we are forced to falsely smile underneath our face masks through every day.
Sam Bean, Matt Wilcock and Dave Haley throughout their decades-long metal careers, have embraced the true nature and embody what it means to articulate and exceptionally render an extreme soundtrack for those of us existing in extreme times and “I Don’t Like You” with Bean’s deep guttural vomitous spewing intent to high pitched shrills or Wilcock’s furiosity malevolent ten billion rpm perfectly placed groove riffage all beat bordered by Haley’s magnificence, is the perfect segway into the emotional drive behind What A Time To Be Alive!
From start to finish this album, with each precise riff and beat, pummels every possible sense.
“Sublime Wartime Voyeurism” is like an unrelenting Gatling gun firing unmercifully into our bodies, whilst “Mission Statement” and “Crushgasm” are as beautifully abrasive as sandpaper cascading across our tender flesh.
Death metal doesn’t get much more pure or perfect than Werewolves folks! And the fun-filled malevolence continues on for five more songs.
Normally I would banter on with my album reviews trying to articulate purpose and meaning behind something I had no input into, fumbling with words that attempt to adequately surmise an album. It is honestly hard to do sometimes because what I want to get across to the reader is my personal connection with a piece of art that unifies me with the situation of life I find myself residing in. But as the imminent future of 2021 purposefully demands our submission at disease and death that paves the path towards us, I will leave the score of humanities demise to Werewolves who have chosen to write the chaotic hymns for us to gratefully listen to and inhale continuously aptly titled What A Time To Be Alive.
