Review of Wojczech - Sedimente

I think I’ll always enjoy this kind of album. The rising stars over at Selfmadegod have delivered unto the metal world another rock-solid nugget of hyperkinetic grindcore, this time in the form of Germany’s seminal Wojczech. To be fair, they’re seminal only in terms of longevity; they’ve been around for ten years, but in the volatile world of grindcore, that’s a blessed eternity. In any case, these dudes churn out down-and-dirty grind that draws just as heavily from hardcore punk as it does from metal, and in all likelihood you’ve heard something that approaches this stylistically. As far as namedropping comparison goes, think somewhere between His Hero Is Gone and Assück with a healthy dose of classic grind-era Carcass thrown in. While it’s not wildly creative (I’m beginning to think that metal’s stripmined itself dry as far as originality is concerned), Sedimente's well-written and delivered with enough mucky vigor to come out sounding pretty goddamn good.

Honestly, what really sells this album isn’t the speed or the heaviness, but rather the punk influence. Before you metalheads all scuttle off to your parents’ basements to sulk amongst your dirty laundry, rest assured that Wojczech have no problem cranking up the speed and heaviness; songs like “Macht Der Beseelten” and “Kein Gesicht” whip past in solid streams of grating blastbeats and blunt-force guitar work. Still, the real standout moments on this album come when Wojczech reign in the grindy aggression and inject those delectable Bay Area snippets of dissonant melody; opener “Krebskult” and its successor “Superparadigma” go heavy on the HHIG/Tragedy influence, squealing with depressive menace. As much fun as these guys are on disc, it’s easy to imagine that they’re really in their element onstage, with unwashed hair and skanky outfits awhirl. It’s certainly a reviewer’s cliché, but sometimes even clichés are applicable.

Grindcore is about aggression, speed, and brevity, and Sedimente delivers on all three, whilst throwing in some fairly clever songwriting to sweeten the mix. It’s a reasonably fun listen, and that’s a rarity in metal, and in grindcore in particular. Nobody’s opinion on grind will be made or broken by these guys, but Wojczech deserve their fighting chance much more than a lot of their peers do.

Release Details

Wojczech

Sedimente

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