Werewolves- You’re Weak and You Know You’re Weak (Album Review)

There’s something admirable about a band that is committed to a specific concept and hasn’t deviated from it, which is exactly what Werewolves has done since their 2019 formation.  Made up of three members from a slew of other bands in the Australian metal scene, Werewolves’ objective was to release ten albums in ten years or die trying (as their Bandcamp page now says, commit group suicide if they fail).  So far things seem pretty on track, as this year’s You’re Weak and You Know You’re Weak is album number seven in year seven and their social media recently showed them already hard at work on number eight.  If you’ve followed the group over any of the other six albums, this one shouldn’t come as a surprise in terms of style as they’re once again bringing a flurry of death/black metal and grind while also keeping Mitchell Nolte busy on the artwork front who has responded with an appropriately gory and eye-catching cover.  What you see is what you get here, and yet the precision of the attack and continued over the top nature of the whole package makes this one endearing in its own way.

Since album one Werewolves have been blurring the lines between death, black, and grind while also having a bit of a technical death metal slant.  Each release has taken this foundation and made subtle tweaks to the formula, with some emphasizing more of the death metal side of things while others went more into black metal, though in recent years the trio seems to have settled into a bit more of a blackened death metal hybrid that pulls the two sides together.  You’re Weak and You Know You’re Weak is no exception to this rule, but it continues the trend of Werewolves being on a steamrolling level of blast beats and speed as things barely let up until closer to the end of the album when “We March” slows things down for a more ominous and colder black metal approach (though you do get some hints of this for a brief moment on “Burn it to the Ground”).  Early on the steamrolling effect of tracks like “Tank Habit” and “Triple Negative” stand out quite a bit, as both shift from an unrelenting deathgrind and technical death metal sound to a blackened death metal tone at different points and provide some quick bursts that pack more details in a short period than you might expect.  The second half uses a similar mix of styles, but there is even more of an emphasis on black metal and blackened death metal with plenty of meatier riffs to back things up.  On the aforementioned “We March” things are oriented towards slower death metal grooves and black metal passages that let that colder tonality seep through, and this is one of the songs that shakes things up slightly.  Admittedly there are a few moments on You’re Weak and You Know You’re Weak that are a bit uniform and don’t completely stand apart on repeat listens, but there were just as many sections that stood out and had me wanting to come back for another bludgeoning.

If you’re new to Werewolves, you may recognize Sam Bean’s low, guttural growls from either The Berzerker or The Antichrist Imperium and his performance is well suited to the group’s unrelenting approach.  Opener “Uroboric Fuckwit” starts off with very traditional sounding death metal growls that seem to get lower with each word, but thirty seconds in or so he moves to a raspier pitch that’s a bit sharper and not as caveman sounding.  There’s a regular back and forth between the extreme lows and slightly higher ranges, and like the instrumentals this gives Werewolves that sweet spot between the black and death metal ends of the spectrum.  I especially like how destructive and powerful the vocals are on tracks like “Tank Habit” where the growls have just as much steamrolling capacity as the rest of the band.  If you’ve followed the group over their discography, you’ve likely noticed some pretty scathing social commentary and some lyrics that are pretty over the top at some points, and with song titles like “Uroboric Fuckwit” and “The Song of Stupid Men” they only seem to be upping the ante with each release. 

Seven albums in Werewolves core approach remains exactly the same but the precision of their attack, quality of the riffs, and over the top nature of some of the lyrics and cover art makes a strong case for that not needing to change.  Maybe I’m only saying that because I haven’t done a marathon of the discography back-to-back or even spent time in depth with every single one, as I could imagine that could dull the impact for some people, but there’s something inherently likeable about the brutality on display here and some of the subtle details made this one click with me quite a bit.  Don’t expect every song to fully stand out but crank this one up and strap in for the ride.  You’re Weak and You Know You’re Weak is available from Back on Black Records.

-Review by Chris Dahlberg