Metal Anarchy

Wretched have announced a new album titled “Decay.” The effort will be released on October 17 and a music video for its title track can be found below:

“Decay” Track Listing:

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”

Drummer Marshall Wieczorek commented:

“We’ve had a lot of time to grow and reflect in the time between our last album and ‘Decay‘. Wretched is doing what Wretched always does, and that’s exploring our environment and leaving room for ourselves to try different things. To sum things up, the new album is dynamic. We go here, we go there, we go everywhere. There is no shortage of groove, heaviness, speed, melodicism, prettiness, and sadness.”

Vocalist Billy Powers continued:

“‘Decay‘ is 100% a concept album. ‘Beyond The Gate‘ had an element this record shares, the talisman. I always knew there was more story there and was very excited to join up with the guys again to put that in motion. The first track I wrote was ‘The Golden Tide.’ I had no idea where I was going to take the story connection to ‘Beyond The Gate‘ until I typed the first line of the song. ‘They began in the dark.’ After that, the lyrics poured out of my mind and by the end of it I realized that this story takes place many years before the content of ‘Beyond The Gate.’”

He also added the following about the title track:

“In the song, ‘decay’ refers to [a character named] Malus’ decaying existence, the feeling of loss, and helplessness/lack of control he has to influence anything outside of the darkness in which he has been cast.

The decay of good intention, the loss of loved ones, the influence time and choices has upon our bodies and minds and the decay of the world around us due to the choices of those with ultimate power.

[The song] ‘Decay‘ is a chapter in our story in which our main character Malus has lost his physical body due to becoming possessed by an ancient Necromancer. He is just a conscious thought floating through the void between time and space, conjuring a familial djinn named Elturiel to gain his assistance in returning to his mortal shell. This track revolves a lot around out of body experience, lucid dreaming, inner voices/internal dialogue, and the potential for reincarnation.

It’s the feeling when you’re so sure that you’ve lost it all, yet you see that little shimmering glimmer of hope at the end of a long, dark tunnel. Then you have the rug pulled out from underneath you to find that the darkness is what you may only ever know. Not to say that all hope is lost because, in the context of the lyrics, it is not. There’s a repeated line near the middle and ending of the song that says ‘once more upon this eternal flat circle.’ It is inspired by ‘True Detective’ S1 where it’s said ‘time is a flat circle.’ This has all happened before and will all happen again. I’m not a flat earther.”