Album Review: You Wretch - "YOUWRETCH EP"

Review By Ian Keane

This four song EP by Minneapolis, Minnesota, Hardcore band YOU WRETCH is nine minutes of your life well spent. Aside from having a decent production value I really enjoy the almost perfect blend of heavy riff-age , punk drums beats, sludgy low end and the all or nothing in your face vocals. YOU WRETCH manage to mix all this together and come out with an EP full of wicked build ups, brutal breakdowns, flowing song structure and a certain "Down and Dirty" aggression that doesn't come off as contrived at any point

The first track on the EP is Called "The Rider" and it straight up kicks ass.Ther is a good 30 second or so guitar intro that kinda makes me think of the band tool in the way the notes are spaced out enough to let the full range of the tone resonate and be heard. Once the song kicks in, it goes straight for the throat - hitting hard and fast with a little sludge and a little punk, sitting nicely together with commanding vocals and an eerie guitar riff that seems to soar over top of the heavy rhythm section and send the song "over the cliffs" so to speak.

The next track is called "Confront" and is the same sort of build up into heavy riff with soaring lead guitar heard in the first track. With the song only just over a minute long and the way it ends so abruptly that in my initial notes on the the album I thought it was still the first song. Since there was such resemblance to the first track it wasn't until I went through track by track that I realized the two were separate.

The third song "Exhume" is very clearly a different sound then that of the first two tracks. It starts out very intense and only lets up for brief seconds to let the riffs sink in before getting more intense. Around two minutes into the song the drums start to take over with busy tom fills before its all out hard as you can, drive it home thrash that adds a great sort of climax to the song.

The final track "Failure and Worship" start with a catchy, classic speed/trash metal kind of riff but with a punk influence that's unmistakable. Once again the drums really stand out for me here, once the song get going as they play something that's interesting yet never over play the part, by adding unnecessary fills or off beats. Again just solid yet fierce drumming that really drives the aggression of the track.

I look forward to hearing "YOUWRETCH" in a full length album format. Its one thing to have four songs without things getting repetitive or stale but a full length is a different matter. If "YOUWRETCH" keep on the path they are heading with this EP I get the feeling we'll all being seeing and hearing a lot more of them.
I for one look forward to that.

http://youwretch.bandcamp.com/