Review by chrisc7249 on January 8, 2023.

I think it goes without saying that there's loads of mediocre, sometimes even straight up bad brutal death metal bands and albums out there… when a genre of music puts all its chips into one specific type of feeling (in these cases, straight up heaviness and aggression), it's easy to create very one dimensional albums with zero character. Enter Unmerciful. Though I've yet to hear their previous outputs before this record, there's no denying that they encompass the wrath of everything brutal death metal is known for; uncompromising speed, intricate, dissonant riffage, blazing hatred and yes, a fuck load of heaviness.

Despite the seemingly overwhelming sound when I first listened to this album, I found myself enjoying it almost right away, and as time has gone on, my enjoyment of this record has yet to wither. This is surprisingly engaging brutal death metal with a heavy dose of technicality added into it, creating a package that is definitely hard to grasp at first, but ultimately rewarding.

The first thing that stood out to me on this album are session vocalist Karl "Rice Grinder" Schmidt's hateful, HATEFUL vocals. Where a lot of brutal death metal vocalists just tend to gurgle indecipherable noise, Rice Grinder (I have a hard time typing that name out in a serious manner, but it'll have to do) is convincingly pissed off and actually very intelligible. I can't recall the last time I heard a vocalist convey this much rage with their pipes… I sometimes feel like this giant beast is standing over me, pushing my neck deep into the cement beneath me, choking me of all life as he snarls ragingly at my slowly suffocating self. It's a wonderful deviation from all the one dimensional brutal death vocalists that have the emotion of a can of Chef Boyardee.

Once I got over the impeccable vocal delivery, I was almost equally impressed by the intensity of the music itself. This isn't just some typical slamming br00tal death with no atmosphere to speak of, Unmerciful has crafted some punishingly heavy and fast tunes that have a decent amount of character and are surprisingly intricate. The drumming is especially hyperactive, never letting off the pedal as it blasts your feeble eardrums into mush, bashing away until all that's left is your liquefied brain. The riffs match the drumming with just as much speed and aggression, creating whirlwinds of destruction that could make even non-metal fans find themselves bobbing their heads.

The production is nice. Not fantastic, not bad, just pretty good. A little noisy at first, but everything is audible and I have decided it suits the music pretty damn well. Perhaps a little too compressed, but as I always say when it comes to me nitpicking small things about production, if it overall isn't broken, no bother trying to fix it.

"Wrath Encompassed" is a devastating record from start to finish that swallows you whole into the acidic stomach linings of a mighty chasm of death… only to spit you out back onto the pavement harder than you were sucked in in the first place. It's brutal and technical as fuck; just how you would like it from, well, you know… technical brutal death metal. Give this one a listen if most brutal death out there is boring you with its lack of dynamism. This album is sure to kick you in the gut and jumpstart your day with a ferocious display of energy and viciousness.

Rating: 8 out of 10