Australian Brutal Death Metal trio Werewolves formed back in 2019 with the aim of releasing ten albums in ten years. This year, they deliver their fifth, so they are well on track with their ambition. Die For Us is, in their words, “yet another barrage of completely moronic Death Metal.”
Werewolves – Die For Us (Independent)
Release Date: 19 July 2024
Words: Jools Green
I do love a band with a self-deprecating sense of humour. Werewolves take their music seriously, as the content of this album will attest, but not themselves.
Line-up wise, given the trio’s other bands, drummer Dave Haley (Psycroptic, Abramelin, Ruins, King, Blood Duster), Guitarist Matt Wilcock (The Antichrist Imperium, The Berzerker, Abramelin) and bassist-vocalist Sam Bean (The Antichrist Imperium, The Berzerker) you are guaranteed a face searing offering of brutal proportions.
Always a winner with me, it helps me maintain a youthful glow.
Bassist-vocalist Sam describes the music on this latest endeavour as “Same shit… blast beats and incoherent ranting, sick riffs, that sort of thing. We’ll slip in some big choruses, brilliant samples, a few hints of Black Metal, one slow track that actually resembles music, and an amazing guest appearance. But at the end of the day, it’s still going to sound like a school bus getting fed into a metal shredder.”
It’s tempting for me, after that degree of eloquence, to leave it at that, publish and go to the pub. But that would be remiss of me as I do take my reviews seriously, and this blisteringly good album does deserve far more attention.
The eight-track offering, which spans just over thirty-five minutes of aural assault, opens on the title track, Die For Us, described by the band as “an anthemic call to self-annihilation.” Which after the unnervingly quietly spoken quote of, “I suggest that you leave very quickly and very, very quietly, or you can stay for the extreme violence that is coming our way!” it erupts into a bludgeoning wall of riffing and drum battery.
The vocals carve a jagged swathe through, and the pace is fast and unrelenting yet still managing to be complex and engaging. If ever a track was an anthemic call to ‘The Pit’, it’s this one, ending on a hilariously disparaging self-review of this track by one of the band.
The next track, Beaten Back To Life, castigates everyone who has the temerity to have started listening to Metal after 1992. Thankfully, I am sufficiently decrepit that I can self-righteously pat myself on the back for not being one of THOSE PEOPLE.
Musically, it’s another high-speed, face-searing offering, and lyrically, it’s hilarious. Mostly because it will remind you of that “one obnoxious Metal gatekeeper” you sometimes have the misfortune of meeting at gigs.
Fuck You Got Mine is a hymn to the joys of being a slumlord. A punchy number crammed with spiralling riffs, delivered at breakneck pace. Well, we would expect no less, would we? This is a track that begs you to circle-headbang yourself into a frenzy.
My Hate Is Strong features the previously mentioned guest vocalist Rok, formerly of Australian Death/Black Metal outfits Sadistik Exekution and Rok. Lyrically, it’s filled to the brim with vitriol and says it like it is. There is no mistaking the message here, delivered with venom, and the pace is, not surprisingly, a breakneck one. The riffs spiral and swirl maniacally.
There is a brief pause in the proceedings midway, only long enough for you to gather yourself together to receive another total assault on your senses.
The onslaught continues with The Company Wolves, where wave after wave of unrelenting high-speed riffs and vitriolic vocals are fired at you. This is followed by Spittle-Flecked Rant, which takes a slightly different leaning, harbouring hardcore elements and throwing in a few d-beats for good measure whilst lyrically “imploring the world to be even worse.” If that is at all possible?
Forging ever on, we are next confronted by We All Deserve To Be Slaves, where a mass of spiralling riffs twist and turn and change with impressive fluidity, taking a stark direction shift midway. I swear this is delivered at an even faster pace.
The next piece, Under A Urinal Moon, is described by the band as “a wave of blackened darkness piss.” Yeah, I can see how they came to that conclusion. But trust me, it’s not a bad thing.
Initially eerie and, by Werewolf standards, slow, the pace builds in unnerving increments but nowhere near the pace of the rest of the album. It’s actually a rather superb listen. Dark, eerie and ominous, with an intense blackened quality, the depth and protraction on the vocals are unnerving. My favourite track and definitely the album’s wild card.
Final offering Stay Down makes one final brutal assault on your senses as you are hit full on by a wall of driving riffs, which actually have a rather exotic edge to their sound. Lyrically it’s a vitriolic beast and musically engaging, varied and once again impressively slick with the high-speed direction shifting. It ebbs back midway, becoming eerie and unnerving, dropping some great riffs in on the re-build.
Regarding the mixing and mastering of Die For Us, Werewolves explain that it “was done by none other than Joe Haley (Psycroptic), because we’ll use him until either he dies, we quit, or Erik Rutan becomes an affordable option.”
“The artwork was done by Mitchell Nolte,” Werewolves say, “not an AI because we’re not fuckwits, and is guaranteed to horrify as many people as all the previous albums. He basically took the album title and ran with it, focusing his artistic genius on cramming as much blood and gore onto an album cover as humanly possible.”
I certainly couldn’t have put that more eloquently, either!
Give it a spin. It’s the brutality your ears are longing for, and you will enjoy the hilarious soundbites between the tracks, too, no doubt.
Die For Us will be available worldwide, streaming on everything, or you can order at the Werewolves website.
Distributed through Direct Merch for Australia/NZ, Night Shift for the US and Plastic Head Distribution for UK/Europe.
