Self described as "doom punk", in all honesty YOUWRETCH's own unique tag for themselves could not be more fitting; in a short yet effective display of sludge drenched hardcore the band's first EP does its job perfectly as a sampler release, effectively putting this Minnesota based crew on the music map.
In four songs and eight minutes total, YOUWRETCH say a lot despite giving so little, showing an equal divide of dark and menacing hardcore sections with uplifting atmospheric sludge breaks. The instrumentation is simple but it's the concise nature of YOUWRETCH's songs that make them so good; in the urgency of tracks like "Exhume" the brevity works perfectly, having the melodic crescendo of its second half disappear as quickly as it came, savoring the impact and begging you to go back to revisit its simple grandiosity. The same could be said about the albums hardcore derived tracks like "Failure and Worship" where you're briefly yet thoroughly battered by its downtuned riffage and the vocalist's pain engorged howl.
An intelligent beast of a release,
YOUWRETCH will grab you by the balls and not let go; thanks to a set of short yet dynamic songs that drift between blind heaviness and refined construction, YOUWRETCH packs a certain punch that will hopefully soon be expanded on in the form of a full-length release.
