Wound - Inhale the Void

WOUND - Inhale the Void (FDA Rekotz - CD 2013)

F.D.A. Rekotz turned quickly into one of the most interesting labels around these days, focusing their roster mainly on the old styled death metal. And damn, they did discover some excellent bands such as Slaughterday, Chapel of Disease, Revel In Flesh, Sulphur Aeon, Skeletal Remains, Lifeless and so on and on. They are all truly killer bands. But to be honest, I must also say that not all albums / bands, which the label has released have been a total shredder, and there are also few, which I think are fine, but sort of more mediocre. I won’t give you all these names now, except the one, which I am going to write about here in this review. And which is the band called Wound. It is quite new band, formed only in 2011, with one demo released, followed by the full length album “Inhale the Void”.

I don’t wanna says that “Inhale the Void” is terribly bad and is not worth a shite. No, it is not the case here. Even with their more mediocre stuff, F.D.A. Rekotz never goes below the level of decency and surely they never shamed themselves with releasing an utter shit. But I just feel like Wound is not as great as some other bands in the roster of this label and I don’t feel so excited about “Inhale the Void” as much I am with “Manifested Darkness”, “Godconstruct”, “Nightmare Vortex” or “Summoning Black Gods”. Maybe it’s because stylistically the album is not entirely in my taste? In total this album just has its ups and downs.

I have noticed that people (reviewers) force themselves to fit Wound into the category of classic old school Swedish death metal, even if not entirely this is correct. I’ve seen even someone who compared “Inhale the Void” to “Soulside Journey”! Uhhh, come on people, be serious. Wound definitely have some influence from the Swedish style of death metal, but I would not exaggerate much about it and surely I would never compare their album to Entombed or Dismember, because the similarity to these two bands is very minor. If any bands from Sweden are close to Wound, then I would rather mention such acts as The Crown, Defleshed, a bit of At the Gates, if they were less melodic and more vicious – as an example you can take the killer song called “Codex Arckanum” (and the vocals are often similar to Tompa’s). Also I think that the band is close musically to Necrowretch, if you’ve heard their “Putrid Death Sorcery”, then you may notice some similarities. This is how I see “Inhale the Void”. So, forget about all those stupid comparisons to Autopsy, Darkthrone, Grave or Dismember. And I must be honest here – I completely did not like Necrowretch’s album. I think it is boring, it is mediocre as fuck and uninspiring. Wound is definitely way better than the French band I think, I can hear some great tunes on the album, some really nice moments, but in general it still not something what I would love completely. Why? Carry on reading.

I guess it is always a matter of your expectations. I cannot deny that Wound knows how to handle the instruments, how to play some good stuff. There are definitely some great riffs and moments on “Inhale the Void” like the song called “Codex Arckanum”, which is really brilliant. It is fast, quite vicious, but melodic at the same time, so it sounds cool to me. “Forever Denial” is another great song, sounding like The Crown on steroids, speeded up totally. Then we also have such “The Unsolved Obscurity”, which shred nicely. But it is due to such songs as “Corroded From Within”, “Among You” and “Confess to Filth” why I am not entirely happy about the album. “Corroded From Within” is especially boring! Such songs are in minority, luckily, but affect me enough to feel less impressed. It is interesting that the album starts in quite vicious manner, with some fast and crazy songs and then near its end it slows down and we have these three or four slower and not as good songs. It’s almost like Wound have fired all the ammo quickly.

So, you can see that generally I am far from calling “Inhale the Void” a waste of time and money. No, Wound is not that bad. But it is this feeling like there are just so many better bands around these days, so my expectations for the quality of music are high. And Wound did not manage to match that quality quite entirely. There are some advantages to their album like some great, fast and relentless songs, I also like the production of “Inhale the Void” a lot. For positives, I think I can also mention the fact that Wound is not yet another the same Autopsy / Entombed kind of clone band. It is just that unevenness on the material here, what I don’t like… Wound didn’t manage to keep the highest quality through the whole album. All in all, this is a worthy stuff, I do not regret adding it to my collection and surely I will keep my eyes open to see what Would will create later.

Standout tracks: “Codex Arckanum”, “Forever Denial”, “The Unsolved Obscurity”

Final rate: 69/100