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IUf you look at the sticker on the plastic that wraps the debut Wretched album The Exodus of Autonomy, you'll see a claim that this release is the best Death Metal album released that year. Sometimes these shameless plugs will draw a pros[pective listener searching for a fix to his specific music addiiction, and sometimes it delivers on that promise. However, in the case of this album, it's practically false advertising. Not only is this release far from the best of the year of it's release, but if you take it literal, thi album isn't even really Death Metal as the sticker claims! The Exodus of Autonomy isn't actually a bad CD, but there's no denying that there is trickery in the advertising of the album on store shelves. Wretched is actually a Melodic Death Metal and Metalcore act from North Carolina, which is important to know since there are other bands that use this name in the United States. The material presented by the band really isn't anything too exceptional, as much of the album actually is just your generic Melodic Death Metal style laced with Black Dahlia Murder, which is evidenced perfectly with the song "Before the Rise", which dives between slow paced and fast paced music that is just composed to stereotypical riffs that, when slow, leave the song open musically. Vocally, there's a nice range between gutteral vocals and higher rhaspier styles, such as during the third track, "Before the Rise". THis is also one of the stronger songs on here thanks to the all around performance from the band. The vocals sound good against the guitars, which aren't too impressive but still catchy enough to drive the song along, and the drumming is better then the previous track, "Aborning", and sound as if there were more passion in then at times. The only gripe to this song would be the closing breakdown, as there are plenty of breakdown moments through the song, but this one just sticks out like a sore thumb. The band also utilizes instrumental sections on this album that could work, but ultimately just don't. The first appears as the introductory track "Shrouded in Filfth", which is basicalluy classical instruments playing a section of some kind of classical, gothic piece that one might find in some high society-themed slasher film. Had this piece been cut down to maybe thirty seconds and spliced into "Aborning", it would have made a fantastic introduction, or in this case thanks to th approach they went, had the song continued on longer and got into a more emotional section before moving on, it would have worked out nicely. Instead, the song really just doesn't even seem to go anywhere in the long run and, again, just becomes another stereotypical piece to the puzzle. But, that's not all. At the end of "Fetal Consumption", there is a short instrumental section tacked on at the end that sounds like part of the actul song, and would work in the song's benefit if it didn't clash with it. Considering the classical-sounding set up on "Shrouded in Filth", you would exprect something along those lines, but instead you get cheap acoustic music that sounds as if there should be a "made in Mexico" sticker somewhere on the package. But why stop there? ""VI: THe Exodus of Autonomy" ius a nearly nine minute instrumental, and about three minutes in you get hit with more out of place music as a weird Carribean-styled unplugged piece kicks in for a very short period of time, then right into the music which is constantly changing, and not necessarily in the most positive of ways. The band does bring in some Metalcore elements to their music, but for the most part it's just casual Melodic Death Metal. No real tricks, nothing fancy, just music that is slightly technical as far the melody goes. The only realy Metalcore aspect to this release would be the breakdowns that the band incorporates, which often are not too great at all. Sometimes they work with the music as well as the guitar solos do, though the latter aren't exactly jaw dropping either but show more talent then some of the songs on here. "VI: The Exodus of Autonomy" really hammers away with those due to it's excessive track length and the various change ups including all the electric passages that give way to acoustic/unplugged sections of the song that completely come out of nowhere and hinder the song greatly by clashing with the already established music of the CD. The proble here is that it's like with other tracks off the album, the breakdowns just are not all that great, and the unfortunate surpluss of them just makes it even more tiring and grating on the listener. Another curious aspect is why this and the following track utilize roman numerals in the song titles, but don't actually reflect anything since they start at track nine, but the roman numerals start at the number six. Why not one if this is part of some conceptual album, or nine to reflect the track number? Even eight (VIII) would have worked if you didn't count the instrumental that didn't need to be there to start the album. Of course, the real kicker for this release is that "VII: The Descent" is a fantastic song and is heavier, and much more solid sounding then anything on the entire album, and fluidly blends into the closing "VIII: Everlasting Damnation" which follows the same thought outline above with "Shrouded in Filth" about having it mesh into the next song, closing the CD off nicely. While The Exodus of Autonomy really isn't that bad an album, it does have it's faults and isn't all that original. The music doesn't really have much of a bite, which could be partly the fault of the production, and the bass also seems to be a bit drowned out in the mix, leaving a somewhat hollow sound. This really isn't a release that needs to be checked out at all, it just seems to be compiled of material and ideas we've all already heard before, but the closing two tracks of the album do work nicely in the long run and shows that Wretched does have some talent outside of writing some good guitar solos. |
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