Full Album Stream: Wretched Fate – “Carnal Heresy”

A strong debut sets high expectations, something that Swedish death metallers Wretched Fate were more than aware of when they began working on their second album, Carnal Heresy. Still rooted in a love for their country’s love of HM-2-powered death metal, the (literally) bloodsoaked quintet buckled down and put a little more focus on the craft of writing songs with an unsettling or horror-inspired atmosphere, rather than relying on samples and the like.

Carnal Heresy is heavier and better produced than Wretched Fate’s debut, Fleshletting, with the riffs feeling more immediate and bludgeoning. The young Swedes’ riffcraft is better this time around—”Cry From Beyond,”  “Harlots for Suffering” and “Mind Desecrator” straddle the line between caveman basic, technical and melodic.

The album ends with “Spineless Horror,” perhaps the more ambitious and atmospheric song on Carnal Heresy. It’s a reminder of how much Wretched Fate have grown between albums and maybe a look into the future.

“When we started making this record, we knew pretty much from the beginning that we wanted to make a more focused effort than our debut album,” Wretched Fate tell Decibel. “Carnal Heresy is a much darker album with fewer frills, and it’s generally more thought through than its predecessor.

“We kept some of the atmospheric elements but purveyed them differently, with less horror movie inspired samples and choirs, and more focus on the riffs and leads of the guitars. Early on, there was an idea that the album had to invoke genuine discomfort within the listener, both lyrically and musically. With this in mind, we took a lot of inspiration from the concepts of cosmicism and Lovecraftian horror in general. We wanted to see if we could evoke the same feelings as greats like John Carpenter, Ridley Scott and Lovecraft to name a few, but through the means of music.”

Carnal Heresy is streaming below and available February 24 via Redefining Darkness.