Wretched Host

Dystrophy

Introducing: DYSTROPHY. A Death Metal quintet from New Brunswich, New Jersey. If I were to mention; […]

• December 4, 2015

Introducing: DYSTROPHY. A Death Metal quintet from New Brunswich, New Jersey. If I were to mention; Progressive, Technical Death Metal, DYSTROPHY would be my definition of those genres.

The band have fair ground knowledge of how to...Death Metal. Releasing 1 previous album: "Chains Of Hypocrisy" in 2010; the band resurrect, to release their latest attempt: "Wretched Host" for a 2015 release, 5 years later! Now, first time around, I found this album to be a bit, boring on the "let's go nuts" side. But it does, most certainly have some fine moments for a typical Death Metal album. And after a couple more times of listening to it entirely, I came to appreciate their motive attempt in time...but, not really.

As I'm a huge fan of bands like DEATH, CANNIBAL CORPSE, you know, the greats... DYSTROPHY can produce; while with not similar traits, but incorporate their own style of Death Metal - hence using the terms: "Progressive" and "Technical" to label themselves, I guess this is what I find boring because "Progressive" and "Technical" Metal feels erratic to me whenever I listen to the genre. At least, that's how I feel from what I've listened to. While Greg Bueno would be a perfect definition of what Death Metal vocals should sound like; the rest of the musicianship just sounds a little bit, off. Unfortunately this comes down to erratic again. When a sound doesn't really move you but just has "heavy" installed, it can feel a bit boring.

To start off the album, while the song "Apex" sounds brutal as hell; it just sounds like a long, but grueling track to be honest and feels set for the rest of the album. While Peter Brown and Peter Lloyd engage in on some particularly fine and explosive riffs; they don't exactly "move" me. And it just feels a bit "bland" to me. Matt Thompson does perform explosively well on his drums though.

"Singularity" has a short, but sweet and pretty crushing riff at the end. While "Within The Mind" showcases some built in Thrash but to be honest, there's not much of it on the album, mostly just a most messy Death Metal sound; that one would argue that we've heard before but "Wretched Host" just feels more...boring, if I was honest. If I were to explain the finer songs this album can offer...they would be: "Demise", "Anhedonia", and "Nadir". Instrumenting with assorted and atmospheric touches including pianist solos and violins make for a more interesting listen.

While "Wretched Host" is a "heavy"-lifter of an album; it's not entirely moving. If I was to explain the album in short it would be a gruelling, but messy...mess. It has the typical Death Metal formula to almost perfect sense, but there just wasn't anything particularly engaging for me and so... it felt extremely boring if I was being 100% honest. Which is disappointing for me to say, being a Death Metal fanatic. If the Progressive and Technical sides were taken out though, I think I would enjoy this album more profusely.

"Wretched Host" unfortunately will be a most forgettable album: it was hard for me to precisely enjoy it. When I compare "Wretched Host" to albums like DEATH's "The Sound Of Perseverance" or "Leprosy", I'd rather just listen to them over again. What's strange though, is that from the previous album "Chains Of Hypocrisy" (from what I listened to), I felt a much better integration of Thrash and Death Metal but to me. That album was both Progressive and Technical Death-fused Metal doesn't make much sense to me, musically and ideologically, it again, all felt very disorganized...

So what can I say? "Wretched Host" has innovation and uniqueness, but what good is it if one can not physically enjoy it? After listening to it twice more I was hoping it would grow on me at least but it didn't. When you're trying to be predictable but not really; something can turn out to be extremely similar but very boring in the end, just like in everyday life; it's not a particularly fine job description.

This is just my viewpoint as someone reviewing this album. Anyone can listen to the music to be their own judge. You can check it out via their bandcamp website and see if you feel the same.<

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