Review: Writhing ‘Eternalised In Rot’
If you can’t tell from the logo and artwork, Writhing are a death metal band hailing from Melbourne, Australia. This is their debut EP Eternalised In Rot, two songs of precision brutality that are solely designed to tear you a plethora of new ones. The EP was released via the killer label Redefining Darkness who’ve assaulted my ears and wallet with great releases over the last few years from groups like Sentient Horror, Plague and 1914. Any release that I see come out from these guys gets me pretty excited and quite rightly! So do these two tracks live up to my already lofty expectations…?
100% it does! Writhing lean on the more technical side of the genre but don’t worry, there’s no over the top guitar wankery and over compressed production that makes me want to jam bread knifes into my ears. No, no! This is well written and monstrously heavy death metal with the technical prowess to deem it ‘tech’ but the soaring grandeur to make it interesting and, most of all, enjoyable. Think Gorguts, Zyklon and Southern Hemisphere maniacs Ulcerate and you’re going to be somewhere in the ball park to describe Writhing’s sound.
The mottled greens and expansive landscape of Mark Coopers wonderful artwork perfectly accompany the expansive sound on offer. The brutal vocals really stand out, they’re utterly pulverizing. Accompany that with the precision drum work that sounds almost robotic and you’ve certainly got something.
The brutal vocals really stand out, they’re utterly pulverizing…
The soaring buzzsaw guitars, and those rad Ulcerate style melodic licks over the top of the brutality are just awesome. The opening track, Void Of Derision, is this mid paced monster that progresses into really interesting low pace moments which you’d expect to find on a progressive death metal record and they’re really enjoyable. With all this there’s also this driving bass that just ties everything together to produce the savage display Writhing have put on offer.
The only frustrating thing about this EP is that it’s an EP, two tracks just isn’t enough. It’s over so quickly and I want more! So this is my plea to Redefining Darkness and Writhing… please get the full length out ASAP because I need more of this madness and I need it NOW!
Label: Redefining Darkness Records
Band Links: Facebook | Bandcamp | Instagram
Scribed by: Matt Alexander
