Death. Metal.
If those two words in that order excite you, then listen up, because it’s time to review the latest album from the Melbourne maniacs Werewolves, titled My Enemies Look And Sound Like Me.
First, context. Werewolves formed in 2019 when Australian death metal veterans Sam Bean (vocals, bass), Matt Wilcock (guitar) and David Haley (drums [member of Psycroptic and ex-member of Pestilence!]) decided to form a band together, despite each already being in at least four other groups. Many bands would fold under such divided loyalties but Werewolves have had no trouble putting out a quality death metal album every year since their 2020 debut. This speed comes from the expertise that each member brings to the table: Bean describes in a YouTube interview with MusicBiz how Wilcock wrote an album’s worth of songs in what felt like no time at all, immediately after the band formed. Then came Haley’s drum parts, then bass, then vocals and lyrics and they were off to the races.
When it comes to the music, Werewolves play a brutal style of blackened death metal that lends itself well to their rapid-fire songwriting process. Wilcock’s guitars boil down to quick 0s, chromatic power chords and tremolo picking (basically they go really fast and evil) and Haley’s drums usually consist of either blast beats or double-kicking. Guitar solos don’t ever come in, but they would only distract from the onslaught anyway. Above it all, Bean’s vocals add an extra layer of groove and brutality and bring meaning with the most violent, hate-filled lyrics that he can come up with. These lyrics often focus on the base, moronic brutality that comes from hyper-polarized people, which can ironically include metal fans and even the band themselves. Bean often finds a way to subvert the serious nature of death metal lyrics with humor in this way, which can provide a much-needed source of levity. Other than that, the focus is on speed, crunch and pain, every album.
On My Enemies Look And Sound Like Me, Werewolves bring no surprises. The first song, “Under the Ground,” opens immediately on tremolo pick hell and it’s all brutal blackened death from there. The second, third and fourth tracks offer more of the same, plus a couple thrashy breakdowns. “Destroyer of Worlds” serves as the album’s token mid-tempo track and then the back half is just as ruthless as the front. Truly, this album is not for the weak of heart.
But is it good? The short answer is that it’s great at what it does. At every moment, Bean, Haley and Wilcock kill it with the tightness of their performances, despite the high technical skill required. Though some might hear it as a wall of noise, a closer listen to any part shows a great attention to style. The songwriting also has a callous craftsmanship: while it may leave no room for the listener to think, it also leaves no room for them to be bored. The band throw in some satisfying progressions of riffs despite their priority on simplicity. In other words, it’s fun to listen to as long as you’re ok with the violence on your ears. Songs like “Neanderhell” (chuckle) hammer away at blazing speed and demonic distortion, but manage to become earworms anyway because of the creative yet infectious songwriting choices. “Destroyer of Worlds” deserves a mention too, because it uses its slower tempo to create a catchy groove that builds in intensity and complexity over the course of the song.
Bean’s lyrics, if one reads them or is somehow able to understand them through the growling, bring another dimension to enjoy the songs on. They have a relentless focus on themes of violence and hatred and are oh so profane (every song has a big old E next to it), but they are relentlessly clever too. The funniest are the words on “Under the Ground,” which paint an ironic picture of the band as kings of underground metal, death to all the “shit-music liking shit-cunt’s” who don’t like them. There’s even a section of unintelligible growls which the band says means “Schrodinger’s lyrics / I could say anything / unlimited potential / until you read them.” The rest of the album, then, has a reduced level of tongue-in-cheek but it doesn’t lack in tasty penmanship. The last track, “Do Not Hold Me Back,” even makes literary allusions to Leo Tolstoy and John Donne, though Bean still makes sure the last word on the album is “shitcunt.”
As a whole album experience, My Enemies Look And Sound Like Me is a musical warpath. From start to finish, the listener is bombarded with blackened death brutality, with as few breaks as possible. There are even voice samples from movies and television, all of them perfectly violent, which come at the end of many songs and cut right into the next as if to prevent them from sounding separate. People who love their death metal and want to channel anger for 34 minutes should try this album, because it is perfect for that. Anyone else might have a harder time getting through all of it, because there isn’t so much there other than sonic rage. Werewolves probably know this well and are glad. It’s as Bean says at the end of “Under the Ground”: “Death metal til we die // Fuck peace.”
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