WEREWOLVES: THE PISS-TAKING BOUT WITH AUSTRALIAN DEATH METAL'S MOST UNPLEASANT BASTARDS.
WEREWOLVES: THE PISS-TAKING BOUT WITH AUSTRALIAN DEATH METAL'S MOST UNPLEASANT BASTARDS
An Interview by Mark Jenkins.
BAND INTRODUCTION
Rising from the fetid underbelly of Melbourne's extreme metal scene like a pustulent boil that refuses to heal, Werewolves have spent the better part of a decade systematically torturing audiences with their brand of deliberately moronic death metal. What began as yet another project in Australia's oversaturated metal landscape has evolved into something far more sinister: a band genuinely committed to making music that hurts.
Fronted by the perpetually unhinged Sam, Werewolves are currently six albums deep into their masochistic "ten albums in ten years" mission—a goal that seems less like artistic ambition and more like an elaborate form of self-harm. Their latest offering, "The Ugliest Of All", promises to be their most deliberately unenjoyable effort yet, which is saying something considering their previous works already sounded like industrial accidents set to blast beats.
Following in the proud Melbourne tradition of bands like Blood Duster and Fuck...I'm Dead, Werewolves have carved out their own niche by being aggressively, unapologetically unpleasant. They've built a reputation not on technical prowess or innovative songwriting, but on sheer bloody-minded commitment to making death metal that sounds like it was recorded in a cement mixer full of broken glass and existential dread.
Now signed to Back On Black after presumably driving smaller labels to bankruptcy through sheer obnoxiousness, the band continues their relentless assault on good taste and human decency. With track titles like "I Want To Be Offended" and "The Enshittification," they're clearly drawing inspiration from the cesspit of modern discourse—and somehow making it even less palatable.
As they barrel toward their ten-album finish line with the determination of lemmings approaching a cliff, one has to wonder: are Werewolves documenting the collapse of civilisation, or are they actively contributing to it? Either way, they're having a bloody good time doing it.
Connect with the magnificent bastards:
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/werewolvesinhell
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/werewolves_band_official/
- Get "The Ugliest Of All": https://werewolvesdeathmetal.com/
THE INTERVIEW
G'day, you magnificent bastards,
Hope you're all well and haven't accidentally killed any studio engineers during the recording of "The Ugliest Of All." Here are some questions for Devil's Horns that match your band's legendary commitment to being absolutely horrible people (in the best possible way):
1. You're now six albums deep into your "ten albums in ten years" suicide mission. Has anyone checked if you're actually still alive, or are you just animated by pure spite and caffeine at this point? Also, what fresh hell awaits us in albums seven through ten?
SAM: Oh fuck me, don't even mention seven to ten. Just don't. My arms and vocal cords throb just thinking about it. We're not alive at this point. I go from rehearsal to an ice bath to bed to work, repeat. We are vessels for hatred, true, but there's every chance we will shatter by the time we reach our goal. It probably doesn't help that Matt saw a video of Pete Sandoval playing in his sixties the other day and is considering stretching the goal out to twenty albums.
2. "The Ugliest Of All" promises to be completely unenjoyable with zero pleasure for listeners. That's quite an achievement in customer service – did you hire a consultant from the Australian postal system to help with this anti-marketing strategy?
SAM: I cannot tell a lie. The idea that each album is a well-wrought individual entity, completely different from the last, with artistic flourishes that may reach out to listeners beyond our usual cohort of dribbling primates? Bullshit. BULL-SHIT. This album physically hurt us to make, and we hope it hurts everyone who listens to it.
3. The press release claims this album is "dark, vicious, hateful" compared to your previous "catchy" efforts. Were your earlier albums accidentally too pleasant? Did someone slip some melody into your cornflakes and you're still traumatised by it?
SAM: I caught myself humming "Die For Us", realised that catchiness is pop filth, and we swore to ensure this album is fucking horrible. And it is. It's all about killing yourself. Or death. Or death by killing yourself. There are no slow songs on this album. 'Unoriginal Sin' is about as groovy and chill as we get, and the opening lyric is "get off the cross, we need the wood". Musically, this album is a mack truck mowing down feeble posers.
4. Track titles like "I Want To Be Offended" and "The Enshittification" suggest you've been spending quality time on social media. Are you drawing lyrical inspiration from Twitter comment sections, or is that giving you too much credit for intellectual depth?
SAM: I WILL HUNT YOU AND FIND YOU AND CUT YOU. Sorry, that came out wrong. Yes, I have been wasting my time on social media. There are actually a couple of fully elitist gatekeeper guys I follow, and their attitudes are my guiding lights. Plus, the infantile Australian media discourse in the last few weeks has helped keep the inspiration up. I'm a middle-of-the-road guy, and I'm getting friction from both sides.
5. You've described your music as "completely moronic death metal." That's refreshingly honest – but how do you maintain such consistently high standards of stupidity while still managing to tune your instruments?
SAM: Tuning is the easiest bit. Matt tunes to himself. Then Joe Haley gives the bass the "Justice For All" mix, so no one can hear it. Tuners are false. We enjoy what we do, and because we're old enough to have got into metal in the 1990s, it means that we actually have SOME standards, and need something more than a chromatic guitar, sub drops, and someone burping into a microphone. This probably makes us sound fresh and catchy to everyone. Is there anything as sad as death metal made to appeal to intellectuals? "Hi, we're a death metal band with highbrow lyrical content, now hear us bark like dogs and blast." Fucking idiots. Everyone is stupid. Get fucked.
6. Melbourne has produced some legendary extreme metal bands, but you seem determined to be the most aggressively unpleasant. Is this a conscious effort to make your peers look sophisticated by comparison, or just natural talent?
SAM: To be fair, I don't know if anyone could be more unpleasant than FMC? You grow up in a town with bands like them and Blood Duster, and I guess you end up defaulting to a profound level of obnoxiousness. It is our birthright. We make them look pretty and like skilled musicians by comparison. One day, some young whippersnappers are going to come out blasting and eating their own shit and name-dropping us, and we're going to be ever so proud.
7. Your album titles read like a timeline of increasing mental breakdown: from "What A Time To Be Alive" to "The Ugliest Of All." Are you documenting your collective descent into madness, or is this just what happens when you're in a band together for too long?
SAM: No, it's that much vaunted progression that everyone seems to think needs to happen between releases that you're seeing. Each album has to be uglier and more miserable than the one that came before it. That's the only progression we'll tolerate. More violence. More intolerance. More blastbeats. MORE, MORE, MORE.
8. "Fools Of The Trade" – are you referring to yourselves, the music industry, or just everyone stupid enough to listen to death metal in 2025? Please rank these categories by level of foolishness.
SAM: Yes
9. You're on Back On Black now after years of presumably torturing smaller labels. Did they know what they were signing up for, or did you slip them some of your "catchier" material during negotiations and then reveal your true, horrific nature later?
SAM: It was their suggestion, believe it or not. We released 'Die For Us' independently after a good run with Prosthetic Records in the States, and Dave was roaming the world for distro deals. When he got in touch with Back On Black's Steve Beatty, they happily stocked the album, named it their favourite album of 2025, and offered us a deal. They're a pack of absolute devils. They knew exactly what they were getting into. The ENCOFFINED box set was THEIR IDEA. Such savages.
10. Finally, when you inevitably achieve your ten-album goal, what's the plan? Retirement to a nice farm where you can traumatise livestock instead of audiences, or are you going to inflict yourselves on other unsuspecting artistic mediums?
SAM: We're currently mixing our second FAUSTIAN album, our black metal band. So we'll probably be working towards ten albums of that. That's when we're not getting surgery for all the limbs we've wrecked battering this bullshit out.
Cheers, and thanks for making music that makes everyone else's problems seem manageable by comparison.
SAM: Our displeasure.
P.S. - If any of these questions offend you, please refer to track 2 of your new album for your response.
AS IF! Hahahaha :D
Devil's Horns Zine - Keeping underground metal brutal since time immemorial-DISAGREE-FUCK YOU!!!
I like to put on hardcore when I have to clean my apartment, which I hate to do, but it's motivational. I like old heavy metal when I'm outside working on my car. Music has definite functions for me.
Peter Steele
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