UMUR "Wrong One to Fuck With" is the 8th full-length studio album by US, Maryland based death metal act Dying Fetus. The album was released through Relapse Records in June 2017. It´s the successor to "Reign Supreme" from 2012 and features the same three-piece lineup as the predecessor: John Gallagher (guitars, vocals), Sean Beasley (bass, vocals), and Trey Williams (drums). In fact Dying Fetus has featured this trio lineup since "Descend into Depravity (2009)", and it finally looks like the endless lineup changes of the past are behind them. A stable lineup for three albums in a row is definitely some sort of a record for the band.

Stylistically almost nothing has changed since the inception of Dying Fetus in the early 90s despite of the many lineup changes throughout the band´s history. Band leader/guitarist/vocalist John Gallagher has steered the ship through various storms with a clear musical vision of playing the most crushingly brutal and groove laden death metal he could possibly produce and has for the most part succeeded in doing just that. Every release up until now has been high quality death metal, although some albums stand out more than others. That trend is continued on "Wrong One to Fuck With", which is another example of how one of the elite artists of the genre deliver brutal and technical well played death metal on a level that only few similar styled contemporary artists can dream of reaching.

No compromise is the first thing I think when listening to "Wrong One to Fuck With", which is a vicious attack on the ears. Given a few listens, hooks begin to appear and there are definitely some pretty catchy moments here and there on the album, but initially you´ll probably be blown to pieces by the ultra brutal music and uncompromising nature of the material. Dying Fetus are not the type of band to cater to accessibility and you´ll be hard pressed to find anything resembling a melody on the album (which of course is a bit of an exaggeration, because there are actually brief hints of melody featured on the album). Fast blasting, sharp riffs and rhythms, and those trademark ultra brutal groove laden breakdowns, paired with the brutal growling vocals of Gallagher and Beasley (who compliment each other with a deep unintelligible growling type and a slightly more intelligible aggressive growling type), are the basis of the band´s music.

It´s not album where it makes much sense to mention one track over another, because all tracks on the album are consistent in quality and style. It´s both a strength and a weakness. A strength because you know that you´ll be exposed to high quality brutal death metal played with great technical skill for the duration of the album, but a weakness because the album is a bit of a one-dimensional listen. It´s more or less the premise of this particular style of death metal though, and it´s a matter of locking on to the brutal hypnotic grooves and enjoying the sharp riffs and precision drumming, rather than expecting stylistic variation and development.

"Wrong One to Fuck With" is a well produced album. It´s raw, powerful, and detailed, and the sound production suits the material perfectly. The triggered bass drums are maybe a bit too "thin" and "clicky" sounding, but it´s not a major issue, and overall the album sounds great. So upon conclusion "Wrong One to Fuck With" is yet another high quality brutal death metal release by Dying Fetus. They are still one of the elite artists of the genre, and prove it once more here. A 4 star (80%) rating is deserved.

siLLy puPPy Ever since the early days of death metal when Suffocation introduced an unthinkable brutal assault to the adolescent ears of the metal world, such so called brutal death metal bands have been hard pressed to keep their form of sonic assault from becoming one-dimensional in scope. Some bands such as Behemoth kept a large part of their black metal roots, some such as Nile incorporated exotic musical scales and themes to separate themselves from the pack and some such as Maryland’s DYING FETUS chose to keep their old school death metal sound as their template and not only up the brutality but add elements of technical guitar wizardry and slamming deathgrind elements as well. While many brutal death metal bands struggle to find new sources of inspiration, DYING FETUS effortlessly continues to hone their sound well into the 21st century more than a quarter of a century after their formation. On their eighth studio album this band proves that maturity doesn’t necessarily equate a single shred of compromise or stagnation. In fact despite being firmly fixed into the signature sound that the band has been evolving since the beginning, WRONG ONE TO FUCK WITH is one of their most varied and deliberately in your face albums just dripping in attitudinal blood like freshly slaughtered convents of forcefully raped nuns.

The fiery opener “Fixated On Devastation” is ferociously fueled and chomping at the bit to unleash the most headache inducing music possible which perfectly demonstrates the modern DYING FETUS in full fucking glory. Utilizing the neoclassical guitar wankery as introduced by Necrophagist into the death metal world, guitarist and vocalist John Gallagher deftly sets the fretboard on fire with finger breaking face melters that would seem more at home on an Yngwie Malmsteem recording but seamlessly melds them into the chunky down-tuned death metal riffing that trigger the incredible bass plucking skills of Sean Beasley to match his beyond caffeinated march into the sonic battlefields of ararchic distortion disciplined into groove metal oscillations and pummeling frenetic time signature freakouts. Of course, the true star of this show is from the extradorinaiy energetic and beyond human skin abuse of drummer Trey Williams who is the prime mover and shaker who has lifted DYING FETUS into a new level of drum abuse and brutality in this latter phase of their career. His amazingly blast beats, double kicks and drum roll changes at a million miles per second leave me to wonder how many drum sticks and other equipment were sacrificed in the recording process!

While some bands are all about experimentation and evolving their sounds to new levels of progressiveness, DYING FETUS is happy to only subtly change their sound on any given album in effect sticking to what they know best and what they perform with ease, namely some of the most wickedly brutal death metal that the world has to offer. While some DYING FETUS albums leave me leaving a little meh by the time i get to the end of an album 9even the shorter ones), WRONG ONE TO FUCK WITH delivers a plethora of satisfying hook-laden compositions that incorporate the expected frenetic slam riffing, ferocious breakdowns complete with all those pig squeal guitar licks not to mention the neoclassical lightning guitar wizardry guitar solos that are used judiciously and erupt without notice. In addition, Gallagher’s vocals have never sounded more tortured like a sodomized with ice picks Cookie Monster and spews out some of the most vile political disdain the band has ever regurgitated all wrapped up with groove, attitude and in full fucking ferocious monstrosity.

Personally i much prefer the newer releases of DYING FETUS as they take all the band’s history and compile it into a much more satisfying unit not only offering a taste of the old school death metal world from whence they emerged but effortlessly ups the ante not only in the school of skill set and musical maestrohood but engages the most modern production techniques to create a crisp and clean sound without sounding overproduced and sanitized in any way shape or form. WRONG ONE TO FUCK WITH is an excellent brutal death metal album that while clocking in at nearly an hour’s length making it the band’s longest to date never gets fucking boring for one bit. Not to mention it doesn’t resort to any sort of energetic slowdown. This is adrenaline fueled brutal death metal from start to finish. Like all music from this band, it revs me up and makes me wanna abort a thousand fetuses and grind them up into sausage and sell it as sustainably raised happy meat at the farmer’s market, but instead after listening to a whole hour of this i’m simply content to listen to the ringing in my ears after the pummeling punishment that this bloodthirsty and barbarous beast has beset upon my ears.

Kev Rowland

Dying Fetus have created quite a stir over the years, releasing some important albums on the way, and finally having a stable line-up is paying dividends as the trio are back with what is to my poor abused ears, easily their most comprehensive album to date. John Gallagher (guitar, vocals) formed the band in 1991, with bassist/vocalist Sean Beasley joining in 2001 and “new boy” drummer Trey Williams keeping the seat warm since 2007, and there is never any room to hide in a trio and when a band has been together for ten years they know what they are doing, and that is very much the case here.

Brutal death metal is what Dying Fetus have always been about, and with both the band name and album title they are showing that there is no change this time around, and why should there be? They have obviously been influenced by Cannibal Corpse, yet Nile have also had an impact, as has Napalm Death as the guys keep their form of death metal just this side of grindcore. It is intense, it is over the top, with absolutely no room for compromise, yet somehow the ten songs all feel quite different and don’t wash out in the way that some albums tend to when they follow the same musical path throughout. There may not be much room for light on this album, but somehow the different shades of brutal black convey enough power and difference to make this album stand out.

There have been some incredibly strong and powerful death metal albums coming out recently, and this is another to be added to the list.