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Review Summary: WRVTH reemerge with a unique, albeit morose, offering that outshines any previous efforts With their signing to Unique Leader and a change in lineup, former technical deathcore band, Wrath of Vesuvius, reemerges as WRVTH (seemingly following a recent trend of replacing vowels with v’s, however this seems to make a little more sense than some others). It was not only the change in moniker that marked a new label and vocalist, the self titled album comes as a turning point in the band’s sound as well. As if its release signaled a reshaping of identity, a self proclaimed statement, “This is who we are,” and it is indeed this new identity that breathes life into a band that could have been just another mediocre outfit. WRVTH is an album with many seemingly different sounds that come together to form a cohesive and enjoyable whole, an album that has a clear direction from the beginning with buildup to a climax and then final release.
WRVTH’s new direction takes them from being somewhat tech death oriented into something almost entirely different. There is far more atmospheric and black metal influence in the album than previous works. Every song features ambient, delayed, sort of post-metal tremolo leads or breaks in the form of clean guitar melodies that add a sombre atmosphere to the album and songs like the emotional “Forlorn,” the title of which may be a good description for the theme, feature nearly outright black metal passages.
This is not to say that they have abandoned their previous prog/tech sound altogether, in fact they have employed those powers more effectively. Jazz influence is probably most notable in the rhythm section, the drums choosing to employ jazz fusion fundamentals without falling into the easy traps of unoriginality and an audible bass which, instead of hugging the guitars, supports chord changes and overall atmosphere and gives the music direction. Perhaps the apex of this comes during the climax of the album with a saxophone solo in “Lured by Knaves” and during the denouement with “Amber Glow,” which is almost a contemporary jazz song for saxophone.
I think it is through these influences that WRVTH demonstrates that they are not only musicians, but humans. Emotion is such a huge part of the human experience and a lot of technical and death metal bands miss that, even while creating very good music. “Ongoing Dissention,” arguably the best song on the album, is the summation of every aspect of this band; proggy tech riffs, ambient leads over blackened chords and a very well executed, emotive solo.
This is not to say the album comes without its flaws. For me, the vocalist drags the band down more than anything. He is whiney and sticks to a mid-high yell-scream reminiscent of Oli Sykes’ signature style on Bring me the Horizon for most of the album. This is not to say he doesn’t “fit” with the sound the band tries to achieve, he is just not very enjoyable.
Perhaps the most troublesome and,even, enjoyable part of WRVTH is their enigmatic sound. The amalgamation of influences, post-metal leads atop blackened death metal rhythm sections with more than a hint of progressive metal stylings, creates a unique sound for the band not found on their previous discography. With their self titled album, WRVTH offers us a much more mature, if morose, effort that signals good things to come.
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Will be checking it out; you wrote some enticing lines. Review should on the whole, sound a little more like paragraphs 3 and 4 as there is quite a lot of rambling. Also, remove the " " on "fit", simply because you are using quotation marks for track titles. It reads fine without them. Didn't get round to trying this album yet so excited to give a listen! Pos'd
| | | Album Rating: 3.5
Thanks for the feedback! I know this one's a little long winded. Where did I ramble? I tried to fit most points into 2-3 sentences.
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First para uses "seemingly" twice; you could probably shorten the first set of brackets to something like "(a surprisingly fitting use that is actually indicative of change) as most people reading this review will know about the 'kvlt/brvtal' trends of late.
The "WRVTH is an album with many seemingly..." sentence is a little long. Keep it concise. Maybe something like "WRVTH is dynamic in scope while following a cohesive and complete structure; beginning, build up, climax, release." You can then elaborate on this later as you talk a little more about the sound of the album.
Para two repeats info about the band's identity; para one says they are a "former technical deathcore band". While this does flow nicely, the intro sentences are unreasonably long. "WRVTH’s new direction takes them from being somewhat tech death oriented into something almost entirely different. There is far more atmospheric and black metal influence in the album than previous works." could be shortened to "WRVTH's tech death roots, while still evident, have been slightly obscured under strong, atmospheric black metal elements." A sentence like this reminds us that the band have undergone change without using up too much space. Rest of para is good though as it discusses the sound in a very concise manner.
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Intro sentence to third para is a little jarring. It sounds like it should be in the previous paragraph; more so than acting as a linking topic. Discussing the style/sound of the album should be kept to one paragraph, and then performances + production to another. So continuing from "...nearly outright black metal passages.", you could say "However, the progressive, tech death roots of the band are undeniably apparent in WRVTH; jazz instrumentation and play style is implemented quite tastefully. The juxtaposition of distorted, blast-ridden, tremolo guitar picking and saxophone solos creates a stunning climax towards the album's later tracks.
The para about human emotions is a little bizarre, and highly subjective. While all musical tastes are inherently subjective, you want to try and be as objective in criticism as possible. Either don't write about emotion at all, or explain in detail how the band achieves emotional highs. "...proggy tech riffs, ambient leads over blackened chords and a very well executed, emotive solo." doesn't cut the onions. A good place you could have touched on when referring to emotion is the structure of the album; you said it has a beginning, buildup, climax, release. Those are all used in narrative for emotional payoff, but choosing to talk about an emotive solo so vaguely isn't too effective or well-justified. I'd say either scrap it or think about an aspect of the album that has more meat to dissect.
Flaws paragraph is ok, but try and avoid "For me...". Instead, just tell us straight why the screams don't work without including yourself. It forces you to justify your opinion, because you want your review to be as objective as possible. He may be whiny, but is that the only facet that counts him as a flaw? If so, just explain a LITTLE bit as to what "whiny" means, but otherwise it is fairly concise.
Don't have time to say anything about the final para. All my criticisms are my opinion so you don't have to use any of it. Hopefully I said something helpful though! Your review covers the main meat though so don't take this short novel I have written as a passive-aggressive hate message haha
Keep at it bro!
| | | Album Rating: 4.0
Finally a place to hype about In Bloom!!!
| | | Album Rating: 3.5
Haha wow dude. I'll go through it and edit at some point. I don't normally get so much creative criticism, it's great. I'm always trying to improve my writing so thanks so much!
In Bloom is awesome. But really the last 3-4 songs are great
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The vocals fuck this record so hard...
| | | Album Rating: 4.0
I'm not sure what that means.
| | | Album Rating: 4.5
The fuck is that average, this is amazing.
| | | Album Rating: 4.5
Summer release confirmed, but no concrete date. Hopefully that means 2019 will be the year!
| | | Album Rating: 4.0
HYPE
| | | Album Rating: 4.5
Hell yeah, these guys deserve to get some press. This album in particular is a beaut.
| | | Album Rating: 4.5
This is amazing. It's a shame this band really flew under the radar on here, this is among the best albums to come out in the last few years.
| | | Album Rating: 4.5
You know what, you might be on to something there
| | | Album Rating: 4.0
In Bloom too good
| | | Album Rating: 4.5
"Forlorn" tho
| | | Album Rating: 4.0
Dope album
| | | Album Rating: 4.5
I get more of a State Faults/Birds in a Row/mid-Architects vocal sound in the mids/highs. It's definitely more core than anything, but the comparison to Oli is lazy at best, imo.
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