Degenerate four piece Wrath Of Man are a groove-laden Death Metal band who hail from Preston in the gloomy North West of England and feature members of All Consumed and who have also featured in Native, Sired By Hatred, Vinterhjerte and Sepvlcralis. With these bands being mostly aligned to the Thrash, Groove, Death and Black Metal stylings, it’s no surprise that Wrath of Man borrow heavily from these sounds to supplement their groove-laden Death metal riff assault. Described as music which features face melting vocals, headbang commanding riffs and drums to pummel your friends to, this debut full-length release has plenty of promise, but let’s see if that actually happens.

From the off, the first major thing of note about this release is how it is stacked from start to finish with rhythmic excellence. The timing, tempo and delivery of the guitar, bass and drums is locked in tightly and this helps it hit hard and relentlessly. There are few moments where a lead surfaces, but for the most part, the riff and fill are king on this release. The best way to describe it would be something similar to At The Gates but without the melodic lead and harmony work. This is evident across all the tracks on the release, it just pulls no punches and hits hard with a tight low-end and fierce attack.

Opening track “Necrosis” hammers away with a commanding presence. The locked in rhythm section surges forwards with power and the vocal growling is formidable. Deep growls and roars populate the verse whilst the chorus features some surprising cleans which have a melodic kick to them and when the two vocal approaches feature together it sounds quite good. This opening track is pretty much the blueprint for the sound on the rest of the release and whilst this might seem fairly simplistic, sometimes the simple approach is the most effective one and this is certainly the case here for Wrath Of Man.

“Self-Induced Lobotomy”, “Lay Bleeding And Broken” and “Drowned In Rot” are groove laden tracks which have a crushing nature to their sound and riffs whilst “Eradication Chamber” and “Autophagia” lean more to the death metal side of things with their intensity. The wall of riffs just keep pummelling away with no mercy and the rawness of the vocals really dictate just how intense the tracks can be. Despite the tempo of the tracks mostly being on the quicker side of things, there are plenty of slow-down sections across the album which signal the traditional break down sections. “Cult Of Decay” features some impressive dual-growl vocals in its obligatory slow-down section and the pounding drums do not let up at all. “One With The Hammer” leans more towards the thrash side of the musical spectrum with its winding riffs and crashing cymbals, a fine combination which will no doubt get a crowd moving and the final three tracks, “Dissection Of The Living”, “Mental Devastation” and “Death Surrounds Me” all flow on from each other perfectly as a fine blend of continuous death-groove.

There isn’t much else to say about this release really. It’s straight forward in its essence; The riff is king. Headbang, mosh, get your groove on… The Abstract Grotesque is a fun time for all!

(7.5/10 Fraggle)

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https://wrathofman.bandcamp.com/album/the-abstract-grotesque