Wasted Death Prepare for the Season Of Evil
January 30, 2024
Brace yourselves, metalheads, as WASTED DEATH is about to unleash their sonic onslaught upon the world with their upcoming album, "Season Of Evil," set to drop on March 15th, 2024, under the banner of APF Records.
Infused with horror, and with zombies everywhere eating into your brain through sledgehammer rifferama, Wasted Death bring their influences ranging from thrash and grindcore to hardcore punk and d-beat metal into an album which redefines what it means to be heavy in 2024.
Comprising the formidable lineup of Charlie Davis (Beggar) on bass and vocals, Wayne Adams (Big Lad and Petbrick (with Igor Cavalera) on guitar, and Tom Brewins (USA Nails) on drums, Wasted Death embodies the very essence of raw, visceral, and gleeful celebration. Their music pays homage to the raw punk-inspired, down-and-dirty metal sound of their influences, including legendary acts like Converge, Sepultura, Motorhead, Melvins, Extreme Noise Terror, and High On Fire.
Drummer Tom Brewins plays like a crazed east London Dave Lombardo; bassist and vocalist Charlie Davis spews an uncontrollable amount of bile at only the slightest provocation; guitarist Wayne Adams clings on for the ride like a pissed-up equestrian with one foot stuck in the saddle of a bolting horse. The trio’s sound ranges from blasting grind to manic thrash to frosty grimness, and whether the influence is Terrorizer, Municipal Waste or Slayer, listeners are going to feel the full weight of the Wasted Death sceptic tank crushing their skulls.
Fans get a tantalizing glimpse into the madness that awaits with the release of the first single, "Stratofortress," on February 2nd, 2024. The track has its world premiere on January 31st, 2024, courtesy of the Sleeping Shaman. "Stratofortress" is a blistering anthem that showcases the ferocity and uncompromising energy that is the hallmark of Wasted Death's sound.
“Stratofortress is your first taste of Wasted Death’s debut album and it is a straight-up anti-war thrash galloper”, says Charlie Davis. “We wrote this song in disgust at today’s war-mongering dog-whistlers pushing their nostalgia for an old black-and-white world order built on bloodshed, power and greed. Musically this one is all about the golden era of Sepultura with its dotted-rhythm chugging before a guest dive-bomb from Green Lung’s Scott Black signals a switch to some NOLA-style groove thuggery.”
"Season Of Evil" promises to be a groundbreaking addition to the heavy metal landscape. With an unrelenting drive to push musical boundaries and explore dark, often rancid themes, Wasted Death invites fans on a sonic journey that will leave them breathless and yearning for more.
“This record sounds like the undead”, says Charlie. “There’s zombies everywhere: zombies pouring in your window, zombies on your social media feed, zombies shuffling past you on their way to work. They’re a symbol of our mindlessness, our flattened affects, our brain-dead listlessness. They’re lurching towards you, hungry for a taste of brain, and the slightest contact can turn you into one of them. It’s not a coincidence that the zombie is so ubiquitous in pop culture given its apathy, its empty-eyed violence, its contagion; it’s a version of ourselves stripped down to the basest impulses. The greatest horror is that we recognise ourselves in it. Plus all its guts are spilling out unmanageably and it doesn’t smell great.”
Season of Evil is the sound of the trio giving it some proper welly. Tom Brewins is straight out of the gate with some of the fastest and most brutal drumming he’s ever committed to tape. Charlie Davis barks and shrieks with all the urgency of man fleeing a horde of undead and all the despondency of a man that knows he doesn’t have long before he turns into one of them. Wayne Adams is responsible not only for his trademark ‘Poundland Dimebag Darrell’ guitar manoeuvres but has also given the record its jaw-dropping production, including its churning modular synth interludes. Not even the guest guitar spots from Green Lung’s Scott Black, with his virtuoso solo on ‘Wasted Death by Wasted Death’, can make this album less stomach-upsetting. Welcome to the Season of Evil.
This upcoming release follows a trail of EPs that solidified Wasted Death's reputation as a force to be reckoned with: "Ugly As Hell" (April 2021), "Ugly As Hell 2 - Uglier Than Hell" (August 2021), and "The Prequel To Evil" (March 2023).
Pre-orders are open now in the APF website store.
Photos of the band courtesy of Charley Shillabeer