When you imagine Greece in your head, metal doesn't immediately come to mind, culturally, musically, geographically. Even so, Greece has produced some of the best Metal bands we are having today (FIREWIND, ROTTING CHRIST). DODSFERD is one of those bands; I could not ignore the rich discography this band has, and I couldn't hold myself from checking it out. They started in 2001, started as a one man band by Wrath, and teamed up in 2009.

Everything about this band is just perfect around the Black Metal genre; it's Dark, Raw, Extreme, highly aggressive and with a furious, super-fast pace. "Wastes Of Life" has made an extreme makeover to the band and has a whole different character.

The general sound for this album is well balanced; it seems like DODSFERD had put no small effort and budget to record, mix and master the Wastes of Life album. The sound is so sweet and clear, every instrument is at its place. You can hear the kicks of the drums and the sweet, crystal sound of acoustic guitar at the " Sterile Death, Without Mourning" intro, everything for the good or bad, the sound is just so accurate and neat as it is. Not typical for a Raw Black Metal Band at all.

And of course the usage of unconventional instruments such as bells in "The To the Fall of Man" intro, sounds genuine, live and not artificial. Individual instrumental performance has been done in a high level and in a very professional manner . Each and every instrument is just beautiful and melodic; there are parts in the "Wastes of Life" where you can easily fall in to melodic atmosphere and get lost in the darkness.

One of the few things that in my thoughts, may put some people off this album and be misunderstood is the vocal performance by Wrath, which sounds like an abused and tortured animal. At first, it might scare you, if you are new to the genre, it reminds instinctively of a screaming creature that had found itself in agony and despair, like a howling injured dog; this is not something that you can easily associate with.

Of course as a Black Metal fan it might be usual for you and if you're familiar with the band, Wrath's performance is also not new to the crowd, though the new approach of soft and weak in a posh recording of quality music, which is far from raw. His vocal performance simply sounds out of place place, unrelated and just simply sad. Some can find it artistically legitimate and even beautiful; I personally find it annoying, especially when you do witness Wrath's outstanding vocal performance at the middle of "Graves of Your Creator" track, a true Black Metal rusty and hollow, beastly old school growls; amazing!

It took me a while to understand what the DODSFERD team had tried to accomplish in this album, and what exactly they are trying to do. Is it Black Metal? Is their experimentation a detractor? As already known from their history, DODSFERD is an extremely raw Black Metal band, which is definitely not the in this album. There's nothing raw nor Extreme, though perhaps, except the vocal performance. Although I can't argue the creative aspect since this album is overflowing with creativity, but it's still misleading for listeners who might look for one type of genre, but encounter something entirely else can be very disappointed. Due to their departure from previous material, some fans may find themselves 'too' surprised.

From time to time, in some parts of the tracks you can hear a burst of good quality Black Metal, but as I mentioned before, there's nothing necessarily extreme or raw here. Do not raise your expectations to hear some good Old School, bone-crushing Black Metal; for that, check out DODSFERD's previous materials.

Maybe it's another trace of an overly-creative mind, and if you manage to discover the meaning behind it you might actually enjoy it.