Artist: WRETCHED
Album: DECAY (CD)

Release date: 17.10.2025
EAN/UPS: 039841617221
Media type: CD

For the last two years, Charlotte, North Carolina’s lauded metal monsters WRETCHED worked on the songs that would populate their long-awaited fifth full-length, Decay. Set for release on October 17th on Metal Blade Records, the result is a conceptual masterpiece that blends haunting melodies with progressive complexity.

This fifth album, which is a prequel to 2010’s Beyond The Gate, delves into existential themes, D&D-inspired mythology, and personal loss. The record sees the boundary-pushing lineup breaking past defined walls of their four previous releases. Sonically, Decay may be WRETCHED’s most pristine-sounding recording, but it’s still raw with a live feeling in the performances. The band didn’t track the parts until they sounded like a computer. You hear guitarist Steven Funderburk pick through the strings and fret the instrument, bassist Andrew Grevey shines on bass with a potent musicality and movement, his parts as much a part of the sound and structure of the songs as the guitar. Vocally, Billy Powers went as raw as humanly possible, pushing himself and the instrumentals to their furthest for an uncompromisingly powerful performance on every track.

CD:

01. Decay
02. Malus Incarnate
03. The Royal Body
04. The Crimson Sky
05. Radiance
06. Clairvoyance
07. The Mortal Line
08. Behind the Glass
09. Lights
10. The Golden Tide
11. Blackout
12. The Golden Skyway

LINE-UP:

Billy Powers - vocals
Steven Funderburk - guitar
Andrew Grevey - bass
Marshall Wieczorek - drums