Have you ever been doing your usual midnight stroll in the cemetery when all of a sudden you got attacked by a pack of viciously enraged vampires and dragged into the depths of their catacomb to be reminded of the atrocious offense you commited against them in a past life?
If you answered "no" to this question, this song is a good surrogate of what that experience would feel like, and if that tickles your curiosity, I'll tell you more about it.
"Wrath", black metal track composed and performed by the one-woman act Sancticide, is built around two elements.
The first is represented by the lugubrous guitar riffs, with an extremely lo-fi sound, massive distortion, mountains of reverb that in some sections make it hard to distinguish the actual notes, and frequent feedback squeals. It is interesting to see that whenever there's a tempo change, or a new riff is thrown in our face, they are often accompanied variations in the guitar tone that make the song feel like it's constantly evolving in something each time more malignant. A pleasant surprise, I was expecting a more monolithic sound all through tha track, but that would have probably made it less appealing.
The second element is obviously the vocals. If you are not familiar with the genre and you are unsure of what the expression "harsh vocals" mean, imagine a banshee screaming at the top of her lungs after gargling sulphuric acid. That would give you an idea of what you are going to find here. Once again, the sound is very gritty, often drowned in reverb and echo, like it actually comes for a the hidden room of a crypt that you are exploring with the only aid of a torch which is dangerously close to be consumed.
I'm surprised by how well the artist managed to construct the gothic/vampiric atmosphere with the obviously very DIY production. From an outsider perspective it might look easy but I'm sure the artist took her time to instill her personality in the track.
As you might have deduced, this release is not for everyone, and neither it wants to be. But if your not afraid of dipping your feet in the darkest waters, you might find something interesting here.