Wothrosch – Odium – Album Review

Who's to blame?

Posted on January 9, 2023 by Chris Jennings in Reviews

A brand new entity from the ever fertile creative Greek scene, Wothrosch‘s blend of black and death metal is a relatively faithful Greek extreme metal album.

You know what to expect, right? Bombastic and belligerent blackened death metal that’s opulent and ostentatious…. only this time its been fed through an industrialised presser that secretes mechanised sludge alongside its tremolo riffs and guttural utterances!

Relying too heavily on apocalyptic pageantry, Odium‘s biggest issue is that it goes big, all the damn time and can be an exhaustive listen – a little judicious editing in the songwriting process wouldn’t have gone amiss to bring these mostly 6min+ durations down a tad.

While Wothrosch are savvy enough to incorporate attention-grabbing moments of nuance throughout, when you’re unleashing epic soundscapes of wall-to-wall hate and bile sometimes a little ‘less’ is most definitely ‘more’.

Still, amidst Odium‘s bluster lies the likes of “Tumor”, which hits with a satisfyingly sticky staccato riff and relatively stripped-back aesthetic that means it doesn’t outstay its welcome. “Mass” is also a highlight, with Wothrosch going full-tilt black metal and roping in Shining‘s Niklas Kvarforth, whose vocal contribution helps elevate the track further.

In essence, Odium is a big ol’ blast of Septic Flesh-esque blackened death metal grandeur (and Septic Flesh do this shit better). This leaves Wothrosch in the unenviable position of having an album that is extremely well-played, epic in scope and full of ideas…. and yet remains dwarfed by the likes of the aforementioned Septic Flesh‘s Modern Primitive, released just last year.

Odium is good, very good at times…. but not yet great. 7/10