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Wykked Wytch - The Ultimate Deception review



Reviewer:
7.4

6 users:
5.5
Band: Wykked Wytch
Album: The Ultimate Deception
Release date: February 2012


01. Birthing The Beast
02. The Ultimate Deception
03. Serpents Among Us
04. Despised Existence
05. Prayers Of The Decapitated
06. When The Sleepers Rise
07. Ecstasy
08. Fade To Black
09. Abolish The Weak
10. Eyes Of A Vulture

Wykked Wytch, another amalgamation sort of band. The good news? It's not a shitty gimmick sort of amalgamation. You know, like those horribly generic bands that add synths to their otherwise boring music in order to give it some identity? Luckily, not one of those. The bad news? Despite being talented, being a multifaceted band, The Ultimate Deception has few songs that have a strong, memorable quality to them.

The amalgamation? It's pretty cool actually, the skeleton of the music seems to be a sort of death metal base, combined with some melodic elements like backing operatic vocals or symphonic synths thrown in at select moments. A few black metal riffs make their way into the mix occasionally as well. The wonderful part is this band rarely forgets what they are deep down; the synths and operatic vocals are generally put in the back to give the death metal parts a big push. It's all pretty smooth...in a jagged sort of way...for the most part.

There's some elements this band shouldn't have touched however, most noticeably in the vocals. The hardcore vocals are nothing but grating, and could have been easily replaced with the Sabina Classen-esque approach that's seen at other parts of the album. Secondly, when the clean singing takes the forefront, it becomes apparent they are kind of weak standing on their own. When used as sort of beef-up backing for the harsh vocals, the incongruous mix sounds great, it should have been left at that. Honestly, when they try to pull off the delicate-meets-harsh sound, they come across as a weaker version of The Agonist. However, when they stick to what they are at the core, and use these more "delicate" sounds as a way to give the overlaying harsh segments more power, it sounds great.

All things considered, this band has got considerable chops. Wykked Wytch just need a little fine-tuning and a stronger grasp on their direction for future releases. If they do hammer out the imperfections found on The Ultimate Deception, they could have an absolute classic on their hands.





Written on 10.02.2012 by Former EIC. Now just a reviewer guy.


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