Australia’s Werewolves have returned with their fifth album Die for Us, having released an album, each year, since their 2020 debut The Dead Are Screaming.  This time around, no longer with Prosthetic Records, like their prior albums, have released this independently.

If you have slept under a rock for the last five years, and have not heard of the band, some of the members are also in Abramelin, who are about to drop their new album Sins of the Father soon.  Additionally, Werewolves play face ripping high-octane death metal.  Are their albums similar?, well, yes.  There’s nary a second to catch your breath and here comes another new album year after year.  When I do certain types of workouts I dig high velocity and Werewolves provide me with their brutality.

David Haley (Abremalin, King, Psycroptic, Ruins, etc) – Drums, Matt Wilcock (Abremalin, The Berzerker) – Guitars, Vocals and Sam Bean (Faustian, The Berzerker) – Vocals, Bass are back to bludgeon us to death and the title track opens after a short quiet moment right into a terrific blast.  This opening blast has speeeeed all over it.  Monstrously brutal, then the groove hitting mid-way through is enough for you to pick up some neighborhood houses and launch them across the city.  Good guitar harmonics erupt during this part, then super deep gutturals.  This part is extremely strong and well-written.  This would be great since there is plenty of slower moments, amongst the chaos, and the band allows the riffs to breathe a lot.  Scorching song opener.  Towards the end, we get the gravity blasting and David is an absolute machine.

“Beaten Back to Life” starts similarly to an old-school Suffocation song, and this blast is lethal.  The vocals are excellent and the guitar sound is great.  Both vocalists trade-off with the deeper moments, as well as some of the blackened rasps that have been prevalent throughout the band’s career.  There are some seething lyrics of animosity with this song and saying “Fuck You” a few times, maybe directed towards a band, family member, or some label.  Whatever the case may be the music goes perfectly with the lyrics.  An unforgiving song, however, the inclusion of the slower groove section hits at the right time.

“The Company Wolves” has some cool isolated vocal opening moments right before the blazing blast beat, then the song returns to a slower gallop pace. This section is great and the drum beats with the off-kilter double bass, are a nice technique incorporated, making this moment sound heavier, and luckily it gets repeated.  I gotta see this band live, I have to see if David can truly drum this fast in a live environment.  This is impressive.  Due to the drum patterns, heaviness and over-the-top brutality this is my favorite track on the album.

Throughout all their albums Werewolves also have a cheeky sense of humor.  Take for instance the song “Under a Urinal Moon”.  Really taking the piss out of Darkthrone’s Under a Funeral Moon, album, for sure.  Regardless this song is not an homage to Darkthrone, but a slow burner of a song, super heavy with putrid vocals where you’re going to want to start punching walls all damn day.  The song eventually leaps into the band’s patented grinding blast.  I would have liked for the song to stay in the slow burn grinding heaviness without blasts, but oh well, Werewolves stopped returning my calls a while ago.

If you are a fan of Werewolves you know what you’re getting.  I have a playlist of all their albums and honestly, the albums do all have the same sound and speed.  Not much can change if you’re putting out albums every year.  Die for Us is brutal AF and does have many moments allowing the instruments to breathe more and I am happy to see such a brutal band continue their path.  When bands start off like this, with each album, honestly, I’m not looking for them to reinvent their sound.  As I said this is killer work out music, especially jogging outside. Brutal to the Max!!!

[Visit the band's website]

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