ALBUM REVIEW: WEREWOLVES - "THE UGLIEST OF ALL" By Mark Jenkins.
ALBUM REVIEW: WEREWOLVES - "THE UGLIEST OF ALL"
By Mark Jenkins.
Rating: 9.5/10 Severed Heads
Melbourne's most unhinged export returns with their sixth sonic war crime, and Christ on a cracker, they've really outdone themselves this time. The Ugliest Of All promises to be "a devastating album with zero let-up or mercy, a thoroughly unenjoyable assault of horrific battering that will bring no pleasure to the listener whatsoever." Finally, truth in advertising!
Where previous Werewolves albums at least pretended to have hooks buried somewhere beneath the avalanche of brutality, The Ugliest Of All abandons all pretence of human decency. This isn't music; it's what happens when you feed pure spite through a wood chipper and somehow teach it to play blast beats.
The opening track Fools Of The Trade immediately establishes that any hope of melody died screaming in a ditch somewhere. The production is so deliberately unpleasant that it makes their previous efforts sound like fucking Enya. Every snare hit feels like getting kicked in the teeth by a steel-toed boot made of disappointment.
I Want To Be Offended delivers exactly what it promises – a grinding, relentless assault that makes you question every life choice that led you to this moment. The guitar tone sounds like it was recorded through a broken amplifier filled with angry wasps, and somehow that's the most musical part of the entire track.
By Skullbattering, you realise this isn't just a song title – it's a literal description of what's happening to your brain. The riffs don't so much progress as they do mutate into increasingly hostile forms, like musical cancer with a vendetta against your eardrums.
The Enshittification – a track name that perfectly encapsulates both modern society and this band's entire aesthetic philosophy – sounds like civilisation collapsing in real time, if civilisation was made entirely of blast beats and existential dread.
And the rest of the album continues on a psychotic adventure in audio violence. But the album's masterstroke is its complete commitment to being absolutely fucking miserable. Where other extreme metal bands occasionally throw you a bone with a catchy riff or memorable hook, Werewolves have surgically removed anything that might accidentally bring joy to your day. It's musical nihilism executed with surgical precision and zero regard for human well-being.
The Ugliest Of All isn't just the album's title track – it's a mission statement. This is death metal stripped of all pretension, all beauty, all hope. It's the sound of entropy accelerating, and it's absolutely magnificent in its complete disregard for your comfort.
Essential listening for anyone who thought music was getting too pleasant these days. Werewolves continue their insane ten-albums-in-ten-years mission by delivering their most punishing effort yet. Your neighbours will hate you, your pets will flee, and your soul will file a restraining order. Highly recommended.
Out on September 19th, 2025:
for all your dysfunctional needs to be unmet.
Antisocial deathtrails:
Somehow these fuckwits are playing this gig, lucky bastards!!:
Reviewed by Mark Jenkins for Devil's Horns Zine
"Bringing you the music your parents warned you about since 2018 "
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And:
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