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(c) 2010 Kickass Records / Disconnect Records

Somewhere in Gothenburg, Sweden, there is a mad punk rock scientist toiling away in his punk rock lab. His creation? Rebuke.

The latest album from the Swedish quartet, Wouldworks, is an aggressive hybrid of the band’s varied influences. The melodic Gothenburg metal style is painted all over the California punk sound, so much so that at times it leaves you wondering if In Flames was jamming with Bad Religion with the occasional hardcore yell thrown in from time to time. With more tempo and time signature changes than Metallica’s …And Justice For All, Rebuke seems not unsure, but unwilling to settle on which direction they are heading in, with the short punk-rock-length songs (the majority of the album’s songs are under 2:30) resembling a teenager flipping between 6 different TV channels in 1 minute. Not one song of the 13 ever starts with a distinct sound and sticks to it.

Simply put, remember when you used to take a cup at the soda fountain and put some of each different flavor in it? Yeah, it’s sorta like that (and it tastes worse than you remember).

In the end, Wouldworks could have been a decent metal-tinged punk album, but just gets too mired in its own ADHD to come together.

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(c) 2010
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…So Yeah, Were Werewolves. Just from the band name you can tell that they’re one of them overly confident metalcore band that are oh so popular right about now. From Colorado, there’s not much to know other than they had a bit of a break, then reformed late 2010. Werewolfs was released in December, and is a re-release of their Cadavers EP and also features demos from 2008.

The album opens with an intro track full of noises straight out of a horror movie sound effect library. Then the screams, on ‘Majesticadaver’, scare you out of your skin as soon as they’re registered in your brain. By screams I mean vocals, if that’s what you wanna call them. The instrumental side of it is chaotic, with pretty much no structure whatsoever. There’s a slight hint of Every Time I Die to them, only slight. Don’t get too excited.

‘Jenny From The Blockadaver (Undead Version)’ starts with the typical chugging Hardcore guitar riff, joined by electro/keyboard sounds, think Enter Shikari. There’s a very long intro- 1 minute, as opposed to none at all on the first track, but not much difference from the track before it. It’s clear now that it’s going to be hard to tell one song from the other.

Straight into the screams again on ‘Anachronisticadaver’. The feral instrumentals continue onto this one, making it hard to tell where one track ends and the next begins. ‘Sunshine Friends/ Dr. Jurassic Park (demo)’ kicks off with a deeper scream- kinda like Candace from Walls Of Jericho. Then the insane, screechy yelps re-emerge. Damn. Gang vocals are added to the mix of out of tune wailing on the chorus of, this, the first of 2008′s demo tracks on this record.

‘Majesticadaver (demo)’ sounds the same as the mastered version, just not as polished. What you’d expect from a demo. Oh, and it’s 4 seconds longer. One demo track that’s better than the mastered version (and most of the other songs for that matter), is ‘Anachronisticadaver (demo)’. It actually has some structure to it. Again with the pointless empty 1 minute intro on ‘J- Dahm’s Bromance (demo), which is a shame because it is one of the best songs on the CD. There’s a pause in the middle of it, then it starts back up again, who knows if it’s two tracks in one. ‘Scott Beowolf (demo)’, the final track, is an epic electro instrumental piece. Well, until 2 minutes in when the yells kick in. That’s all it is, yells. No words, just yelling for over a minute. And this still counts as music how exactly?

…So Yeah, to sum it up, this compilation of an EP and demo tracks is essentially 25 minutes of deranged, unsettling noise. Which is pretty much the definition of math-core. So enjoy! I suppose.

–Frankii

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