Sunday, July 30, 2017

QUICK HITS: Dying Fetus - Wrong One to Fuck With

Grammar Wizard is disappointed

I have a bit of a weird relationship with Dying Fetus, since I consider them to be a praiseworthy death metal institution, but at the same time I really only think they have two bona fide classics (Destroy the Opposition and Reign Supreme) and don't really listen to them all that often.  They've always been plagued with production and inconsistency issues and those two albums are the only two where everything really came together properly and created absolute fucking monoliths of technical slamming death metal supremacy (though keep in mind I haven't heard Descend into Depravity so maybe there's three).  Regardless, after an agonizingly long five year wait, they're back with their old, slimy logo and ridiculously gory cover art gracing their newest opus, Wrong One to Fuck With.  Despite ending with a preposition and driving me absolutely nuts in the process, Wrong One with Which to Fuck is another phenomenal trek into the particular niche that Dying Fetus fills so well.  That sublime way they straddle the lines between brain dead slam, hyperviolent grindcore, and needlessly wanky tech death is showcased in full force here.  While there aren't many moments as instantly attention grabbing as the breakdown on "Praise the Lord" or the first riff on "Revisionist Past" (though "Fallacy" obviously tried to recapture that magic), there is a lot to like here.  It's hard to write about Dying Fetus (hence why this is just a Quick Hit) because they've basically stuck to their guns and reused a similar template for all of their albums, despite the fresh and energetic way they tend to assemble the parts within the template.  You know what it's gonna be.  Slams and sweeps and blasts and tremolo alternating with each other twelve times per minute while they just overload your senses with brutality.  I can say I like the oddly distant lead that opens "Weaken the Structure", the breakdowns are killer on every track but stand out a bit more on the title track and "Panic Amongst the Herd", but pointing out examples is rather pointless because every song more or less sounds the same.  This isn't really a problem though since Dying Fetus just fucking kills at this style so it comes off more like a plateau of endless brutality.  I'll say it's not quite as good as Reign Supreme just because the songs are a bit longer and makes the album a little bit more of an endurance test, but the music contained within is just as good.  Don't sleep on this, they're absolutely back.


RATING: 90%

No comments:

Post a Comment