WRETCHED: “DECAY”

 Album Reviews  1 Response »
Dec 022025
 

(Below we present DGR’s review of the long-awaited fifth full-length by North Carolina’s Wretched, released on October 17th by Metal Blade Records.)

I’ve thought a lot about legacy and what I admire in a band when they decide to return after an extended period of silence. It may just be that this year has been a prime fruiting ground for such bands to find their way back into the eternal heavy metal fray, but the thought has danced on the edges of the intellectual periphery for a while now.

When the subject of what a band has left behind and what they are returning to comes back again – which has proven to be the worst mental dam in the history of man, as I’ve been waiting for thoughts to congeal into something resembling cogent writing – it is mostly couched in the ideals of expectation and what their fans may want from them. This is where the intellectual breeding ground has run wild.

The one overriding thought I’ve come back to is I admire many of the approaches available to a band returning to music after an extended hiatus, though part of that may just be that I’m a barely evolved chimp who is just happy to have his favorite band logos appearing on tour posters again, and among those are exceedingly difficult choices that lie in either the chase of where the group left off last – picking up a baton long covered in dust and left roadside – or the return, but as something different and unexpected, which is where I have found myself standing with North Carolina’s newly resurrected as a four-piece Wretched and their new album Decay. Continue reading »

GONZO’S HEAVY ROUNDUP, OCTOBER 2025

 Album Reviews  No Responses »
Nov 032025
 

(October 2025 is done and dusted, Gonzo has survived another month, and so he surfaces here to present reviews of four recommended albums released in the year’s 10th month.)

At the risk of sounding cliched, it’s always a depressing reality when Halloween comes to an end. It’s even worse when daylight savings time kicks in on the same weekend, reminding us that the Big Dark is already upon us, signaling the months of snow and rain and subzero temperatures that lurk around the corner.

Choose your coping mechanism as you wish, but whatever they are, I recommend you add these four new releases to distract you from the horrors. Continue reading »

SEEN AND HEARD ON A FRIDAY: OMNEUM GATHERUM, BELPHEGOR, WRETCHED, AUTHOR AND PUNISHER, GORLEBEN, ORBSTRUCT

 Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  No Responses »
Aug 082025
 

(written by Islander)

For the second time this week I found myself with enough spare time to pull together a week-day roundup of recommended new music and videos, getting a head-start on the usual Saturday collection.

Like the one I sorted out for Wednesday, today’s collection includes some very well-known names but also foists upon you a couple of comparative obscurities to help even things out (and by my lights the most interesting song — and the strangest one — in today’s group comes from one of those lesser lights). Continue reading »

VIDEOGRAPHY: WRETCHED, EASTERN FRONT , DOMINIA

 RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  6 Responses »
Jul 012014
 

Yesterday I posted three videos that I liked despite the fact that they weren’t exactly in our wheelhouse or down the middle of the NCS fairway or [insert other sports cliches]. For those of you who might have wanted something mo metal, I have the following three videos that appeared since I wrote that earlier post.

WRETCHED

The first video is for the song “Wetiko” from the album Cannibal by North Carolina’s Wretched. DGR praised the album in his review for us earlier in June.

The well-made video (directed by Eric Richter) focuses on the band performing (as well as some self-satisfied assholes behind a pulpit). It effectively combines slo-mo footage with seizure-inducing bursts of speed. Also, frontman Adam Cody looks really, really pissed-off. Also, lots of skulls.

The music, of course, is a blast of manic intensity. Catch it next. Continue reading »

WRETCHED: “CANNIBAL”

 Album Reviews  4 Responses »
Jun 032014
 

(DGR reviews the new album by Wretched from North Carolina, and at the end we have a brand new video from the album.)

My history with Wretched is a spotty one at best. I discovered The Exodus Of Autonomy way too late for my own good, on the insistence of a fellow writer at a previous website, and really enjoyed it — but it was one of those situations where I felt I had really missed the zeitgeist on the band. Thus, when Beyond The Gate hit, that was my legit starting point with Wretched and I found a group who had gone really far into the melodeath spectrum of things, which I still feel was so odd given Victory Records’ slate of artists at the time.

In fact, they still feel like they were then one of the more intense groups on Victory’s roster, not prone to overindulgence on breakdowns and instead an intensely guitar-heavy, straightforward band who bounced between the various spectra of death metal at the drop of a hat. They were a band who were hard to pin down, moving between a variety of genres and landing them with tags like “progressive death core”, “tech-death”, “thrash”, and everything else that could have “death” suffixed or prefixed to it.

Son Of Perdition, on the other hand, is the brand of Wretched that I absolutely fell in love with. Joined by new vocalist Adam Cody (of Columns, Vehemence, Glass Casket, and a handful of other bands), the group took a turn for the absolutely manic. Continue reading »

AN NCS INTERVIEW: STEVEN FUNDERBURK (WRETCHED)

 Interviews  2 Responses »
May 152014
 


photo by Daniel Cunningham

(In this post our man DGR interviews guitarist Steven Funderburk of North Carolina’s Wretched, whose new album Cannibal will be released June 10 by Victory Records.)

 

I know many of the people who will be reading this interview will already be very familiar with you, but for the less enlightened among us out there can we get just a quick introduction as to who you are, what you play, and how long you’ve been with Wretched?

Hi Dave! Sure thing. I’m Steven Funderburk, I play Guitar, and I am one of the original members of Wretched. We started out in 2005, so almost 9 years now.

 

Cannibal actually marks the first one-word album title for you guys — after usually being in the three- to four-word range. Why did you guys settle on something as simple and straightforward as Cannibal?

Indeed! Well, from the get go, we wanted to write a straightforward heavy record from start to finish. We had nothing but heavy grooving in mind. It just made sense to have a title that not only fit with the lyrical content, but with the musical aspect of the record. We wanted to get straight to the point with the title, artwork, and everything behind this record. No frills, just straight-up in-your-face metal.

 

How’d you come around to the artwork for this album? It’s very different from the previous few.

The artwork on Cannibal represents Adam’s lyrical content on this record, as well as the music. We wanted something that visually represents our identity as a band, as well as remaining cohesive with the content of the album. Raf the Might did the artwork, and we could not be more stoked on it! Continue reading »

SEEN AND HEARD: ORIGIN, WRETCHED, DEAD CONGREGATION, DOOM:VS

 Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  11 Responses »
May 072014
 

Over the last 24 hours I discovered (thanks in large part to tips from NCS friends) quite a lot of new music and news that I’d like to recommend to you — so much that I’m dividing the discoveries into two posts today, this being the first.

ORIGIN

I always look forward to new music from Origin. I know that, if nothing else, it will simulate the experience of wetting my finger and sticking it in a high voltage electrical outlet, except without the heart stoppage and the hair smokage.  And yesterday brought release details about the new Origin album — Omnipresent:

It will be released in North America by Nuclear Blast on July 8 (yet another birthday present for me!) and by Agonia Records in Europe on July 4. The cover art, which is visible above, is by Colin Marks (Nevermore, Kataklysm, Exodus), who also created the cover for the band’s Entity album.

Drummer John Longstreth, guitarist Paul Ryan, and bass-player Mike Flores are back, and this album will feature the Origin debut of ex-Skinless vocalist Jason Keyser. Colin Marston handled the mixing and mastering. Pre-ordering is available here for Agonia. This is a new band photo: Continue reading »

TOURISM AND DE-TOURISM

 Metal News  2 Responses »
Jun 222013
 

Happy fucking Saturday to one and all. In this post I’ve collected information about a random assortment of new tours that have recently been announced. But first, I have to mention a tour that it seems was announced a bit prematurely.

FLESHGOD APOCALYPSE – ANAAL NATHRAKH?

Two days ago it was announced that Fleshgod Apocalypse would be leading ‘The Lords Of Extremity Tour‘ in the UK this October, with support from Anaal Nathrakh, Bound By Exile, and Scordatura. There were press releases, official-looking poster art, and sponsorship by the likes of Nuclear Blast and Terrorizer. And who in their right mind would miss the chance to see Fleshgod Apocalypze and Anaal Nathrakh on the same bill?

There was just this one little problem. Here’s a statement that appeared on Anaal Nathrakh’s Facebook page about 3 hours ago:

“For anyone hoping to see us in the UK in October: It appears we have been announced for a string of UK dates with Fleshgod Apocalypse in October. We did NOT agree to play these shows. Repeat: at no point have we ever said that we would play these dates, or that Mick would even be in Europe at the time. Continue reading »

TOURISM: SOILWORK, JEFF LOOMIS, BLACKGUARD, THE BROWNING, WRETCHED

 Metal News  3 Responses »
Oct 302012
 

Sweden’s Soilwork have been working with producer Jens Bogren on a new double-CD album, The Living Infinite, which will be released sometime next year by Nuclear Blast. Today, they announced the first North American tour in support of the album — and it’s a mammoth one. It will begin on March 12, 2013, in West Springfield, Virginia, and finish on May 7 in Worcester, Massachusetts.

I’m sure I’ll see this tour, especially because it’s coming to a relatively compact venue in Seattle, but also because I still have a warm spot in my heart for Soilwork despite a musical trajectory over time that’s been less than completely satisfactory, given my tastes. With a new double-CD worth of new music to promote, I suspect there won’t be much room for the really good, hard, older stuff, but we’ll see.

Also, Jeff Loomis is along for this ride, and I’d see this show even if he were the only name on the bill.

The line-up on the whole is curious — you certainly can’t accuse the organizers of lacking a taste for musical variety. In addition to Soilwork and Loomis, the tour will include Blackguard, The Browning, and Wretched. As for me, I’ve never been able to get into Blackguard, The Browning are a guilty pleasure, and Wretched — they kick ass. And what do you think? Continue reading »

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