Dead Wretch is also Void Ritual’s multi-instrumentalist and black metal one man wunderkind, Dan Jackson. On Dead Wretch, he whips up an EP’s worth of sublime punk/black metal entitled Fuck It. This is easily one of Dan’s best releases. It has frenetic energy, songwriting nuance and lyrics that are relevant to the style of music. He uses a lot of humor lyrically, so get a lyric sheet as you check out this stream and review.
Comprised of eight tracks in total, tracks one to five are the jugular in the punk/black metal sub-genre. The tracks are particularly intense on the blast sections, going a million miles an hour with tremolo riffs that are comparable to a funnel cloud traveling at the speed of darkness. The punk riffs aren’t simple three chord patterns that sound unimaginative and overdone. Instead, the punk riffs blend in with the blast sections perfectly, and it is clear to the listener that guitar is still Dan’s best instrument, although Fuck It is more than just riffs, riffs, riffs. The programmed drums sound organic and they lock in the tempos at paces far too extreme for a human drummer to simulate with success. The transitions and bridges have catchy, memorable lyrics attached to them. In fact, the lyrics on track three, “Have You Heard of Witchery,” are hilarious.
Dead Wretch busts out of the gate with the galloping, frenzied first track, “Miracle Black Punk Connection,” and is a great selection to start off the mini-album. It does more than get you into the music early. It pulls you in and ties your arms to the back of a freight train. Then, track two, “Unfuckable,” picks up where the first track leaves off and maintains the intensity of play. Track five, title track, “Fuck It,” has got to be my favorite. The black metal parts here send all hell breaking loose in the moshpit. Extreme, blessed with songwriting magic, Dead Wretch’s Dan Jackson is peerless at the execution of riffs calculated to sound like rage bursting into armageddon. If Fuck It barely gets you up from your seat during a listening session, you must be jaded towards all types of extreme music.
Catchy to a fault, nonetheless trve, enjoyable and visceral in temperament, Dead Wretch’s Fuck It is a must-have for kvlt punk/black metal fanatics. If you want to know how to make your music accessible and flat-out fun to mosh to, Dead Wretch shows you how. What’s the use of experimenting with weird instrumental sections when the metal barely stirs you into wakefulness. Steven Halpern-doing-black metal doesn’t sound like a description for music that sets the soul to fervent inspiration. So, to all musicians bored with conventional tributary black metal, and fans of bands that experiment with sax parts without playing metal riffs that stir so much as a nod, much less a song’s worth of energetic headbanging, listen to bands that show you just what pure black metal spirit sounds like. It isn’t attitude or hype that gives credibility to any band or musician. Dead Wretch deserves more recognition. Support bands and musicians that get it. Dead Wretch’s Dan Jackson does!
