Album Review :
Children of Wrath - No Flesh Spared

Children of Wrath have made their debut, No Flesh Spared, an album to remember. Going with genre moniker of Blackened Symphonic Melodic Holy Death Metal (Extreme Hybrid Metal anyone?), No Flesh Spared made some noise in the scene.

The album begins with the intro track of “The Legacy of Man”. The song is described by brainchild Luke Dinan as an audio collage. In the background, you can hear war, chaos, sirens and death. In the foreground, musically, you can hear a symphony of violins and orchestra.

“The Words” has a very sludgy overtone with Dinan’s death/black metal vocals over top. The track also utilizes symphonic elements and acapella vocals. Twice, the song sort of repeats itself and goes into a slow sludge tone and plays sirens in the background.

“Seven Plagues” is a brutal track. The track is oldest out of all of them, according to Dinan’s interview with The Antidote. Symphonic elements add to this track immensely. What I respect is that when it comes to the chorus and it’s all light, with symphony playing in the background, Dinan does not break out into song. Not clean singing anyways. It’s more like an aggressive spoken word.

“The Degenerate City” starts off with very symphonic elements until the one minute mark when the deep doomy guitars come into play. A lot of the song is spoken word, or rather the chorus is. All the lyrics on the album are written directly out of the Bible itself, which makes for spectacular metal lyrical content.

“Forerunner” starts off with the drums in the distance before it comes to full buildup. The chorus on every song is so intricate and beautiful musically, that if you took them out of the song, you’d never know that it came from a metal band or project. Props Luke. Props.

“No Flesh Spared” was the first song I ever heard from the band. The song is definitely one my favorites off this album and it will probably be one of yours as well. Fast and brutal and plenty of guitar squeals. There’s also a really intricate symphonic moment, where it’s just the violins and some sort of acoustic instruments. Probably one of my personal favorite parts of the album. Brutal song.

“Grave Digger” is an awesome song. I may add that this track is going to appear on Metal From The Dragon Vol. 2 (and yes, there’s going to be one). The track is dark and thick. The riffs of Dinan’s guitar is definitely a tone I’d like to have if I was in a death metal/doom metal project. The drums on the track are some of the best programmed drums I’ve heard, and I especially appreciate the fade in buildup alongside the violins.

“By Fire and Sword” has beautifully done intro and it hits you hard. There’s a very light hearted feel to it, with the female background vocals. The vocals remind me of several different bands, like Demon Hunter, Horde and Fleshgod Apocalypse. The symphony of instruments in the background of the song really makes this an amazing and makes Dinan’s talents shine even brighter in a world of over-saturation.

“The Remants and the Martyrs” starts off slow and remains that way for a majority of the song. I thought the song was an instrumental, but Dinan’s vocals proved otherwise. Though, they are mostly spoken word, he still screams his heart out when the song enters the chorus. The song is definitely a good way to end things and leave it open for his next release.

Children of Wrath is definitely a hard working project and has produced an amazing album. Definitely a Best of 2017 album for me, and hopefully, for you.