Worship Metal Album of the Week – Werewolves – What A Time To Be Alive

This snarling pack of mythical bastards includes members of The Bezerker, Psycroptic and Abramelin and their pedigree (natch) is writ large on this nihilistic sophomore effort. Hot on the heels of 2020’s damn fine debut, The Dead Are Screaming – and with a title that raises more than just an eyebrow and a wry chuckle – Werewolves‘ What A Time To Be Alive is another quick fire dose of transformative blackened death metal – and its as nasty as all hell!

As amusing as they are astonishingly abrasive, these Aussies pull no punches in their desire to both please and provoke, and you believe ’em when they say they’ll happily kill us all. Unsurprisingly, with lyrics that get straight to the fucking point – “I Don’t Like You’ regales us with the brutally effective “If you were the last person on earth, I’d fucking kill us both” – and the music to match, What A Time To Be Alive is as hateful as they come; a seething blast of untethered rage that refuses to deliver anything but the most rancid of rancour!

Apparently, the Werewolves’ debut album, The Dead Are Screaming, was conceived and recorded in Australia in mid 2019 and was followed by half the country burning to the ground. This sophomore release was then recorded early 2020 and was immediately followed by a global plague. If these snarling soothsayers dare call their next album Giant Tsunami Wipes Out Half the World’s Population we’re gonna be running for the hills quicker than you can say,’ those darn Werewolves are fucking with us again!’

On a happier note, in the meantime we’re happy to just crank this beast up again. What a time to be alive indeed! 9/10

(we don’t really give out 10/10 reviews because nothing’s really perfect – especially right now – so you’ll just have to put up with a 9/10 and catch on to the fact that this is a fucking great album). 

Werewolves’ What A Time To Be Alive will be released via Prosthetic Records on January 29th 2021