Track of the Day: ENGRAVED – The Wretched One (2024)
Known for their bold performances, infectious energy and moving melodies, Australian metalcore band ENGRAVED casts a unique slant to the metal industry. From local scenes to larger festivals, the quintet have a roaring confidence that ensnares senses and can blow your ears out with their ferocity (but it’s a good blowing your ears out). Entering the scene with their powerful debut EP Unleashed in 2022, the lads have turned heads across the globe from France and Brazil to the USA, the UK and their native Australia. The latest addition to their discography is the single ‘The Wretched One’.
Following their critically acclaimed single ‘Deadline’, ENGRAVED rushes into 2024 with ‘The Wretched One’. Reminiscent of acts like Killswitch Engage, Bullet For My Valentine and In Flames, ENGRAVED weaves powerful metal with hard rock in a bubble of venomous intensity. Combining high-velocity drums with scorching guitars, ENGRAVED catch you in a wave of metal insanity from the outset. One aspect I find particularly interesting is how the guitars and drums appear separate in a distorted arrangement; however, a simultaneous harmony exists within the mania.
The instrumentation is forceful and spellbinding in its own right rising from heavy pounding to a softer lull in melodic metal and ending with a gentle ripple of noise, but it is the layering of vocals that brings a slant to ‘The Wretched One’. Screaming vocals grab your chest with a guttural grating leaning toward a purely metal sound. Oddly enough, there appears to be a disconnect between the melody and raging vocals as if you were listening to two different songs. Uncomfortable and disconcerting, you feel pulled in two directions before a change in execution closes the link with warm, rich dulcet tones stringing along its melodic metal route.
Described as “omnidirectional”, ENGRAVED is truly unique licking various flavours of metal in a five-and-a-half-minute song. The sweet melodic metal links the elements but touches of abruptness, breaks in the tune, and even the subtle leading out in a hard rock sweep make ‘The Wretched One’ harmonic in a delicate but chaotic symphony. Interestingly, this flair of different sounds eloquently captures the theme of ‘The Wretched One’ – a “plunge into the depths of a troubled mind where the heart encounters the heavily composed trauma…”
In addition to the single, ENGRAVED released an official lyric video for ‘The Wretched One’. You can view the video below or on ENGRAVED’s YouTube channel.
Find out more about ENGRAVED on their official website, Twitter, Instagram and Spotify.
This artist was discovered via Musosoup #sustainablecurator
Listen to more melodic metal tracks on The Other Side Reviews Melodic Metal playlist:
