Werewolves – From the Cave to the Grave
Release Date: 24th June 2022
Label: Prosthetic Records
Bandcamp
Genre: Death Metal, Black Metal, Technical Death Metal.
FFO: Exhumed, TBDM, Gorerotted, Early Carcass, Impaled, Aborted.
Review By: Rick Farley
Melbourne, Australia’s very own belligerent and pissed off Werewolves, are dropping their latest chunk of meaty blood-soaked death metal From the Cave to the Grave on the top of your skull in hopes of crushing your spine. This merciless album is not for the weak hearted. This is a cleaving, hairy, long fingered with razor sharp claws, hand aimed right at your face. Going for the kill by repeatedly bashing you senseless with an all-out savagery of brutal instrumentation. Fast-paced razor sharp riffs, relentless frantic drum work and gruesome vocals unleashing their piercing hooks and crushing heaviness all pointed directly at you. Every track is a nasty, foul pile of death with hateful intent. Berating everyone with creative profanity, and surprisingly well-crafted, but no fucks given lyrics. I can’t stress enough how much this is no nonsense, no tech-death wankery or cleans of any kind. It’s just pure, unadulterated thrashy blackened death metal set to destroy everything in its path. This could very well be the most damn fun you’ll have listening to any metal album all year.
Album lead off track Self-Help Book Burning gets right to the point by declaring its ill intent with steam rolling riffs, commanding double bass, and serious hate mongering. The track is obnoxiously heavy, like a six-hundred-pound snarling lycanthrope ready to unmercifully rip you to shreds. The wicked vocals are just as mauling, having an immediate delivery between low gutturals and high raspy gargles that make my Carcass loving self, grin from ear to ear. The lyrics are an absolute blast too; there’s some pretty discernible hatred towards someone. (“Might as well fuck off and die!”) Now, that’s a sentiment with which I can agree.
Video track, We are Better Than You, is a foul-mouthed, highly energized piece of anthemic death metal. Furious blackened tremolo picked riffs brutalize, leading into an old school thrashy rhythm during the verse. The track is hooky and completely infectious, the powerful drums and thick bass are the shifting backbone, similar to the contorting body of a gruesome transformation. This song will make you uncontrollably smash shit, while you gleefully sing along, (“my foot up your ass all the way to the knee, we are better than you”). Like most songs on From the Cave to the Grave, this track is catchy as hell and will leave you battered and broken, but completely and stupidly euphoric. The violent pace of the record does not relent until track five, Harvest of the Skulls. A slower burn of slithery and sinister guitars. Low demonic gutturals layered under the higher pitched scream and atmospheric dread makes for a sickeningly haunting vibe. It crawls along creeping until the last minute or so, where it goes off with a chugging crunchy guitar groove overtop fast-paced double bass. Don’t get the wrong idea, though, this track is no less heavy or brutal, it’s just a little more measured stalking before it kills. However, being right in the middle of the album, it’s a welcome respite from the enraged flesh ripping that came before and that’s still to come.
Honestly, this album is complete carnage. It’s ruthlessly brutal, lyrically clever, sounds amazing and a delightfully bloodthirsty fun time. While obviously some tracks are better than others, there are no fillers here, and the re-playability is off the charts. Heavy, hooky, furiously paced, aggressive with a twisted sense of humour and leaves me wanting more. Buy this record.
I will leave you with the genius level words of Guitarist Matt Wilcox, “this album sounds like the last album, but better.” 
(4 / 5)
