WEREWOLVES

We know where we stand with WEREWOLVES at this point. Their agenda has been one of seething misanthropy, bilious hatred and wild, bug-eyed disdain from the start. On 2020's furious debut "The Dead Are Screaming", they sang fondly of "Beating Those We Despise". A year later, sophomore opus "What A Time To Be Alive" began with "I Don't Like You" and ended with "They Will Pay With Their Own Blood". Third album "From The Cave To The Grave", released last year, proclaimed an ethos of "Pride and Extreme Prejudice".

WEREWOLVES hate you; they hate humanity, and they probably hate each other. Handily, they also have the music to match the nihilistic sentiment. From their debut onwards, the Australians have pushed technical death metal to its hyper-speed limits, eschewing complexity in favor of an alarmingly precise and brutal bullet-hail of riffs, with contemptuous sloganeering from frontman Sam Bean fitted as standard.

On "My Enemies Look And Sound Like Me", WEREWOLVES are evidently no closer to discovering some latent fondness for the human race, and their music is still a bewildering, hard-as-nails assault on the senses. Again, we know where we stand with this band. Songs like chaotic opener "Under the Ground" and the insane speed-fest of "Bring To Me The Kill" echo the rapacious death pomp of MORBID ANGEL and ANGELCORPSE, but with all the supernatural overtones removed, leaving only the endlessly repeating impact of a skillfully wielded spiked bat.

At times, WEREWOLVES lean so hard into their blastbeat fixation that "My Enemies…" begins to veer into extreme psychedelia: "Brace For Impact" is a relentless, swirling vortex of riffs and kicks that gradually gains speed, becoming wilder and woozier in the process. But at its heart, this is a record concerned primarily with smashing its way towards unholy Armageddon, deaf to the screams of the feeble and terminally unable to find the brakes.

"Destroyer Of Worlds" is noticeably more temperate in its approach, with its slow, gothic doom gait and icy, dissonant chords, but one brief moment of respite makes little difference to the overall effect of WEREWOLVES' myopic malice. The brilliantly titled "Neanderhell" and the ethos-defining "I Hate Therefore I Am" swiftly restore parity, with absurd tempos, barbarous hooks and more hate per square inch than anyone could reasonably expect. "I Knew Nothing Then and I Know Less Now" and "Do Not Hold Me Back" sustain the intensity to the bitter end: more blasting, more riffs, more hate.

All of this comes with the necessary caveat that WEREWOLVES are clearly having a brilliant time, despite their contempt for just about everything. The Australians' fourth album in four years is every bit as vicious and hateful as the previous three. It's righteously over-the-top and supremely entertaining. Just don't expect a hug afterwards.