The Alchemist - Album Reviews

Hey guys, with our album finally out, here we are sharing two awesome reviews about The Alchemist, enjoy the read...

Metal-Rules

Review by: Kurt Almey, 01/05/2023

Perhaps London, England’s best kept secret, the three-piece Death Metal act Wounded Not Dead emerge from a considerable slumber (due largely to the intensely frustrating effects of a pandemic bring the world to a halt) with their second full-length album. Aptly titled “The Alchemist,” the self-proclaimed ‘Space Death Fusion’ trio have crafted an album that, ironically enough, both represents the relentless endurance of a journey to manifest dreams and beliefs through means of being lightyears ahead of where the dream began.

With a solid and respectable first outing almost 4 years ago, Wounded Not Dead had “The Alchemist” mapped out not long after. Now, in 2023, we get the fully realized vision of their conceptual, progressive death metal project… and it was worth the wait. Mind-bending, atmospheric, brutal, and never boring, the album presents itself as a balanced diet of technical prowess and unpretentious jazz-infused death metal.

Standout tracks “Register of Embodiments” and “The Obstacle is the Way” are merciless and unyielding and bridge the bombastic opening moments to a second half without suffering from overindulgence or unnecessary diversion from the band’s strengths.

It is the albums final 10 minutes though that are the coup de grâce in asserting the project as a complete, thoughtful record; the feature vocals courtesy of Misstiq on the two-part finale are on par with recent top-tier cosmic black and death (Omega Infinity comes to mind) and round out what is undeniably an unrelenting album with a rewarding operatic conclusion.

Wounded Not Dead has produced an assertive, remarkable album in a rapidly crowding niche subgenre. Labyrinthine flows and arresting performances make the weighty, brutal assault undeniably fun. Highly recommended for death and cosmic horror fans, particularly those who need their Gorguts, Pyrrhon, and fresh avant-garde death.

Rating: 4/5 Link: https://www.metal-rules.com/2023/05/01/wounded-not-dead-the-alchemist/

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Lack-of-Lies:

Reviewed by Janko Katzenmeier,

Can there still be creators of new metal styles these days? I mean yes and immediately think of WOUNDED NOT DEAD from Great Britain's capital London, who proudly call their self-developed style "Space Death Fusion". Unpredictable, innovative, technical and downright destructive death metal meets progressive jazz fusion. Ok, admittedly this self-imposed predicate is only good as a new subgenre. But that the British extreme metallers have put on an unmistakable, futuristic, spacey and absolutely mangy signature sound is undeniable. Take a hybrid of MESHUGGAH, FLESHBORE, THE GREAT DECEIVER, NAPALM DEATH and PANTERA, add a bit of avant-garde jazz psychomania alongside PCP and give it a good shake. The tech death weirdos WOUNDED NOT DEAD are already tumbling towards you. Thiago Carvalho's staccato-like Death Grunting punches you in the face so hard that you get dizzy. His unmistakably choppy to spherical riffing can hardly keep up. Adriano Ferraro's erratic, enormously variable and unbridled brute force, polyrhythmic machine gun drumming fires incessantly and in technical perfection. Without considering losses, Rimon Jaoude's bass ax, played in a jazzy manner, lets the furniture hop through the short and chopped up booth. The nine dynamic and energetic visions "The Alchemist" is something of brute pushing and behaves like a bang in the ear canal. There is something new to discover around every corner and edge before you are mercilessly flattened by the British leveling roller WOUNDED NOT DEAD.

The progressive bundle of power has a slightly playful, yet completely serious and authentic vein. However, the Brits have to make sure that their neurotic drum patterns and guitar loops don't become too exhausting for the listener at some point. For the strong arrangements of the synth sound and piano passages in "The Omega Point - Part 1 and 2" the extreme metal connoisseurs have made a brilliant choice with the Australian producer Misstiq. For their almost 37-minute second work "The Alchemist", WOUNDED NOT DEAD received an all-round carefree package consisting of recording, mix and master from Wynter Prior and his Sphynx Studios in Brighton, UK. Why am I so looking forward to the second full-length, which has already been announced for 2021? of the progressive death metal trio formed in 2014. I was anything but disappointed, because with WOUNDED NOT DEAD 2.0 I finally have my personal highlight for 2023 in my hands! With their nasty hammering, the masters of their profession exude enormous power, which has been implemented technically on top and absolutely brilliantly.

Rating: 94/100 Link: https://www.lackoflies.com/reviews/wounded-not-dead-the-alchemist/?fbclid=IwAR2XU-nFPwxX5KdZ-ZyYJwlaKYTC3cg2DFPbrH9xvvAX6vnBiEvCygE-8OA