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Withered, Memento Mori

by David Agee
04/08/2006

If there was only one thing to be said about the metal genre as a whole, it would be that metal definitely knows how to please its audience. While the audience tastes of other varieties of music can be constantly shifting, the metal audience wants three things: loud and distorted guitars, angry vocalists who make you feel like Satan himself is berating you, and drummers who kick bass drums faster than Olympic sprinters. If a metal band follows that formula, the crowd will circle up a pit for Ozzfest and call the set amazing.

With that said, Atlanta's own Withered displays exactly what a Metal band should be and how they should sound on their latest release Memento Mori from LifeForce records. The crunching guitars of Chris Freeman, Greg Hess, and Mike Thompson and the ultra-quick drummer, Wes Kever, blast on the first track "It's All Said," and would make even the most prissy of goth girls (who are not very prissy at all) flail their jet black locks like they were preparing for take off. Then lead vocalist Freeman slows the tempo for his guttural growling that would summon a legion of demons to follow Withered on a cavernous tour of industrial clubs across the globe. Demons may not actually follow them, but at least people dressed that way will, even with Freeman snarling lyrics like "Is your worth all that you wanted? You're empty."

Withered continues to bring their Swedish dark metal-inspired sound with the next track "Within Your Grief," and Freeman, with the help of Thompson, continues to roar similar lyrics that exemplify so deeply the eternal struggle of life.

The end of this second track slows the tempo for "Like Locusts" the eight and a half minute centerpiece of the album. This epic creation generates the same dark landscape that spans the length of Memento Mori and defines the variations of sound that Withered produces as a band.

Though Withered is an astonishing blend of balladeer guitar riffs and unrelenting grindcore, their weakness as a band is found in their angst driven song lyrics. Dark and brooding imagery does have its place in metal, but when the images are apparently a random list, they do not work and are not as deep as the artist probably thinks. However, the strength of their musical talent does mask this weak point, so the lyrics are not obtrusive until you read them in the liner notes.

Withered may not top a "best of" list with Memento Mori, but they have an audience who will buy this album, a t-shirt, a concert ticket, and call Withered a good thing for a bubble-gum music industry to blacken its mouth with.