G&P Review: Wojczech

Wojczech
Pulsus Letalis
Selfmadegod
As an amateur epicurean with a budget, a lot of enticing delicacies have been denied me on the basis of cost. Chief among them would be the purported glories of Kobe (aka Wagyu) beef, famed for its exquisite marbling and excellent taste. The bastards on Iron Chef keep tempting me, but so far the opportunity to partake has eluded me.
And while that delectable morsel is beyond my current pocketbook’s reach, it does make a perfect metaphor for Germans Wojczech’s unexpected new album, Pulsus Letalis, which is beautifully marbled with lean grind muscle and veins of unctuous death metal substance. It’s just a shame it’s a bit of step back from their earlier work.
As to be expected since it's the band’s first full length since 2005’s Sedimente, there’s some rust that still needs to be worked off. Where that album was a gymnastics routine tied to a foundation of grind (bassist Andy Colosser moonlights in criminally underrated grind visionaries Who’s My Saviour), Pulsus Letalis plays it safer with a more familiar blend of death and grind. Wojczech have hunkered down to deliver a dozen songs (including Repulsion’s “Maggots in Your Coffin”) of bullish death grind that pits aggression over artistry. While it may tend to a tad generic lacking the band’s prior expansiveness, it does its job.
“Battlestar” swirls along on a delightful circular riff while the astrally projected “Leitkultur” hints at Wojczech’s former experimentalism as it slithers along like a glass serpent. The strongest aspect of the album, overall, is Stephan Gottwald’s perfectly on point drumming, highlighted by the thunderous “Steinzeit” or snare rolling “Izotope.”

Wojczech - "Izotope"

Wojczech have always suffered from middling band syndrome, never finding that hook to vault them into wider consciousness, but by jettisoning the irregularities that made Sedimente stand out from the pack, they’ve made their job that much more difficult. On its own, Pulsus Letalis is a perfectly acceptable album, but compared to Sedimente, it just feels lacking.

Ever Increasing Circles

I have a limited musical vocabulary. So much for all those piano lessons when I was 10, mom. But Mourning the Unknown features one the best of what I call “circular” riffs during the swirling maelstrom that is “I Dare.” It’s a vaguely black metal-ish round of tail-biting that circles like a shark-toothed Ouroboros before closing in for the kill. Like piercing, ringing guitar tones, it’s one of those songwriting tricks for which I’m absolutely a sucker. Like the aforementioned Sayyadina, Luddite Clone also uncork a circuitous ripper on “Oratory of the Jigsaw” while Swedish Discordance Axis disciples Asterisk* fast forward their way through the same slight of hand. Even Napalm Death and ASRA, neither exactly known for their commitment to flowery songwriting, have been known to toss out chunkier versions of the same trick.
Here’s a few of my favorites. Enjoy.

Asterisk* – “Dromology”
Cyness – “Lonely Planet”
ASRA – “Payload”
Napalm Death – “Next on the List”
Wojczech – “Superparadigma”
Rotten Sound – “Blind”
Sayyadina – “I Dare”
Luddite Clone – “Oratory of the Jigsaw”
Who’s My Saviour – “You March”

Sprechen sie Deutsch: Wojczech

Wojczech
Sedimente
Selfmadegod
2005
Ferocious German foursome Wojczech were the first to lay title to the grindcore Sudetenland currently prowled by like-minded Poles Exit Wounds, staking their panzer-backed claim on sole long player, 2005’s Sedimente. The Germans’ grindcore arsenal was stocked with steampunk instruments of death that may not strike as precisely as today’s laser-guided munitions but are awesome for their curious design and sheer menacing bulk. Building on a foundation of From Enslavement to Obliteration, Wojczech only came with one setting: deadify.
“Superparadigma’s” early album appearance is a manifesto of drooling pitbull intensity and cage fight dynamics transcribed in about 2:20. Recognizing a national treasure, the Germans should immortalize drummer Heinz’s (who is also responsible for the Sedimente’s striking monotone gray artwork) face on the Brandenburg Gate for the atavistic savagery he incarnates on “Wachkoma.”
Wojczech’s lightning war approach to grindcore all but guarantees Sedimente would be a slim album (a pair of seconds short of the 24 minute mark) but the band bleeds out every drop in their veins and retch up every ounce of bile before that last second clicks closed, especially on two part closer “Redeschleife/Reste der Vergangenheit Letzter Ausgang Opferrolle,” a Teutonic mouthful that leapfrogs warp drive straight into to ludicrous speed.
Sedimente is tribute to the German national spirit, an unpretentious but remarkably efficient import of carefully engineered grind that puts many of our domestic models to shame.