What do you call a prodigy of sounding really dumb? Wretched Inferno are three high schoolers playing caveman death metal so knuckle-dragging it almost feels weird praising them for it. Fester is the Massachusetts band’s first proper release and validates all their teachers’ concerns.
Joking aside, their old school death metal sound belies their high school age—both individual (each player is 16) and as a band (formed in 2018). The trio waste no time exhibiting their brawn. “Devouring Innards” slams right off the get-go, while “Manipulative Parasitism” proves they have a solid handle on melody, too. Splitting the difference in tracklisting and sound is lead single “Necrobirth,” a solid summation of the old school death metal EP as a whole. The closing title track shows Wretched Inferno’s more nimble side, opening with some serious blasting.
All of which is to say mission accomplished. The band revealed their plan for the Fester EP in a statement provided to Decibel.
“The goal of Fester was to summarize the evolution of our sound over the past couple of years and to show what kind of music we’ll be writing in the future. Musically, our goal was to combine all of our influences into something unique but still keeping true to the characteristics of modern/old school death metal and just writing music that’s just fun.”
They would go on to thank supporters like Frozen Soul, Garroted and John from Frozen Screams Imprint. Oh, and Mortician “because they fuckin’ rip.”
They also wax poetic on the next devolution in death metal: from caveman to their ape predecessors.
“Essentially, ‘monkey riffs’ was a term a fan coined on one of our videos of us practicing a new song called ‘Brutalized.’ The way I see it, with the whole ‘caveman riffs’ movement the scene has come up with, I imagine monkey riffs to be the next step up from that. More primal and aggressive, I guess.”
It’s not just a guess; hear the proof in the player below.
Wretched Inferno’s Fester EP drops tomorrow, November 6. You can (and should) pre-order it digitally. A cassette re-press is coming soon via Frozen Screams Imprint.
