WTN - Rotting in Pestilence
Released: 2004
Cost: $15

Tracklist:

Reviews

Braindead Webzine
This singaporean band is relatively unknown to the scene, but they have been putting out split vinyl releases for a few years now, most notably with Squash Bowels, Morgue & Ulcerrhoea, all of which... I unfortunately haven't heard personally... Still, "Rotting in Pestilence" is already announced as their one and only album, ever... If that's the real case, then this is assuredly a superb, thrashing, grinding and gore-soaked swansong! The album opens with an instrumental introduction in the tradition of "Genital Grinder" (Carcass) & "Ominous Lamentation" (General Surgery)... Then musical slaughter ensues... If I had to compare WTN to another modern grind band, I'd say Machetazo because of their similarly gritty sound, heavy and raw at the same time. WTN definitely have their own distinctive style though of course; this is grind-gore delivered in a basic, effective way, but still with some real personality, edge and complexity to it; Most of the songs are purely infectious, churning grind with speed, gore-gurgling vocals, thrashing guitars, crushing drumming & blistering bass sound as main key elements; however WTN clearly tried to give their songs more layers and cooked up some very neat song arrangements too, often eerily/morbidly melodic... "Symphonies of Sickness" by Carcass often springs to mind in that respect... the album also retains the sheer simplicity and coolness of something like Impetigo's "Horror of the Zombies" too, especially for the directness of it all and the blend of horror movie samples and atmosphere with the music. Oh, and let this be the last reference, on many occasions, WTN's musical impact and stomach-turning abilities also reminded me of Haemorrhage on "Emetic Cult". More regarding the vocals: they are mostly very pronounced grunt-roar/growls underlined by fewer squeaky shrieks and hardly any vocal effects (at all?), lower, guttural, Bill Steer/Stevo(Horror of the Zombie) style vocals are my personal favorites so I think the vocal choice was very wise (an example to follow really). One of the many highpoints of this album is the cover version of Impetigo's hommage to Nekromantik "I Work for the Street Cleaner", a very entertaining rendition of one of the most accomplished Impetigo songs, and Impetigo guitarist Mark Sawickis even plays guitar for it! This is packaged in gorgeous horror comic-book style artwork by Nor (Machetazo's "Trono de Huesos") and the booklet contains the lyrics too. This is not a perfect album but still some impressive and clearly passionate composition work that will surely fascinate many a grind-gore freak. My favorite songs are probably the great opening "Rotting in Pestilence" and the fantastic closing song "Into the light with blood", some really striking and memorable riffs in there. Simply unmissable!

Metal-Archives
I haven't heard that many good bands from Singapore, but WTN has broken that barrier for me. WTN resembles Impetigo a lot with the heavy chugging riffs and vocals. The early Carcass worship is present in the production and speed. There is even some Autopsy like riffs that appear, most notably in "Rotting In Pestilence", a killer instrumental track opening the CD. Hell, I can even hear some Repulsion, Bolt Thrower and Celtic Frost in this cd. With all of those influences how could this go bad? It can't you see! This is on Razorback! I have a great deal of respect and trust with this label. They have never let me down and this is another reason to back that up with.

The production on this is very raw, but it's still very listenable and comfortable. This almost sounds like it was recorded live. I absolutely love that, I love when bands get sloppy, it just sounds so human. I can relate to bands like WTN more than say, bands like Cephalic Carnage or Necrophagist.

Mark Sawickis of Impetigo drops in for "I Work for the Streetcleaner" cover. This is probably the fastest version I've heard too. The funny thing about this cover is there is no sample to it, but towards the end of the song one of the members of WTN (I'm assuming) repeats part of the sample. This I thought was really silly, but can easily be forgettable. It's sorta funny like the way Impaled did it, but in an unintentional way.

The artwork on and in this cd is simply amazing. I can't stress this enough, this is some of the best work I've seen. From the cover of the cd, to the cd inlay to inside the booklets with the Graveyard, every drawn picture in this is awesome. The same person that did this also did some Machetazo artwork too. Both of the Machetazo CDs had great art, but I think this new WTN cd kills those. This is one of the coolest looking CDs I own. Also this is one of the coolest sounding CDs I own.