“Gold Above Me” serves as an intro featuring Eastern-tinged technical riffs and drumming straight out of the Nile/Behemoth playbook. The first proper track, “Morsel,” delivers Wretched‘s familiar sound, although musically it is very refined. There is a heavy Gorod vibe in the melodic sensibility of the track, and also a death/thrash element that calls to mind The Absence or Black Dahlia Murder.

Like all good tech-death bands, Wretched knows when to slow down. For example, the first half of “Thin Skinned” reigns in the speed, then continues with perfectly rendered dual guitar harmonies reminiscent of the best work of Vital Remains.

“Cranial Infestation,” one of my favorite tracks, strikes an absolutely infectious Gorod-like groove, and again features a very melodic bridge section. Instrumental “Cannibal” is a true stand-out: a mammoth, 7-and-a-half-minute groove-laden melodic powerhouse, with the free-flowing song structure of Iron Thrones coupled with the mind-bending but melodic riffs of Anata.

Despite the quality present on Cannibal, it’s an unfortunate fact that many other bands have been doing this exact thing as well or better for some time; Gorod in particular for damn near a decade now. Wretched isn’t bringing much new to the table, but it’s refreshing to hear technical songs that have a healthy sense of melody, and make creative choices that work. Along with Soreption, this release has helped renew my faith and interest in technical death metal. This is an album of undeniable quality, but time will tell the extent and longevity of its impact.

Certainly the band has a modern death metal energy and slice  ‘n’ dice American sound that compares favorably to the likes of The Black Dahlia Murder and other like minded acts and with Son of Perdition there seems to be an increased sense of virtuoso technicality that imbues Vale of Pnath or Arsis. However, even with all these positives, Wretched just never seem to fulfill the potential and cash in on their obvious skill.

That’s not to say the band and indeed the album is not enjoyable, as in fact Son of Perdition does a lot right with a tight punchy delivery, sharp production and oodles of skill,  but it’s the death metal equivalent of Chinese food- it’s all tasty and filling at the timing you are consuming it, but an hour later you are craving something else.  And quite frankly, after multiple listening sessions, I can’t recall a single memorable moment or riff from the competently fierce yet melodic hack and slash of the album’s first six songs and their slightly melodic, slightly technical take on metal

But there is some better news around the seventh song. As with the last 2 records, the band flirts with some classical and atmospheric elements, but never fleshes them out for more than an intro (“Oblivion”), interlude, or few opening/closing bars of a song as heard in the albums unfulfilled promise of trilogy “The Stellar Sunset of Evolution Pt. 1 (The Silence) , pt 2 (The Rise) and pt 3 (The Son of Perdition)” .  Here, the band’s more adventurous side is only touched upon, but the chance is missed to mingle both styles with a potentially, almost Fleshgod Apocalypse styled amalgamation. Instead the band takes a three song break into acoustic/instrumental/classical tangents rather than fully integrate these more adventurous elements into their high octane assault.  But then they go right back cliched, almost deathcore stomp and romp of “Karma Accomplished” .

After the album closes with the lumbering closer “Decimation”, I reminded of a common sports analogy: “Looks like Tarzan, Plays Like Jane”. Wretched is that ripped, highly touted naturally athletic football player who on paper has the skill set to be a star and at times flashes enough ability to really impress. But ultimately, they never quite put it all together and only tantalize with a sparse few moments leaving a lot of unrealized potential on the field.

I’ll tell you right away, Wretched are not doing anything remotely original, in fact, stylistically this is as contrived and unoriginal as death metal gets, but like releases from Sons of Azrael, Salt the Wound and Mirror Of Dead Faces, its done very, very well.

Sandwiched between two classical instrumental pieces (“Shrouded in Filth”, “VIII: Everlasting Damnation”), the bulk of the album is, as I mentioned, The Black Dahlia Murder styled American death metal. However, as with a slew of recent American ‘core’ based releases (label mates Within the Ruins, Woe of Tyrants, Fate, Conducting From the Grave, Malefice, etc), Wretched also manage to add some sharp solos and melody to the basic premise, perhaps stemming from their North Carolina roots, resulting in an above average effort and Victory’s most impressive metal album in some time.

While the entire album is pretty consistent from start to finish, and has a tangible sense of classic black and death metal prose wrapped in the modern sheen and delivery – notably the epic “Before the Rise” and “A of Immortality”, of note is the album’s last half, including the very impressive, almost nine minute instrumental title track (complete with flamenco injection and some sweeping Between the Buried and Me harmonies) and fiercely melodic penultimate track, “The Descent”.

On the downside, the production is slightly murky production, there’s some ‘samey’ percussion and pretty forgetful vocals, but those elements are offset by the bands dramatic flare for melodies while simply sticking to traditional death metal themes and lyrics, rather than try of be quirky and off the wall, an element that while I’ll admit is completely subjective on my behalf, I’ll always give a begrudging nod to.

With the new Darkest Hour album slated for a June 2009 release, Wretched, Within the Ruins and to a lesser extent, Arise and Ruin have kept Victory Record’s metal reputation somewhat intact, i just hope Darkest Hour is up to the challenge as The Exodus of Autonomy is a damn solid debut that has a lot of promise for Victory’s metal future.