WRETCHED Return With Concept Album ‘Decay’, Due Out This Fall

North Carolina death metal outfit WRETCHED have officially announced their long-awaited fifth studio album, Decay, which will arrive October 17th via Metal Blade Records. The album is the culmination of two years of writing and recording, with the band handling engineering and production themselves.

It also marks their first full-length release since 2014’s Cannibal — and drummer Marshall Wieczorek acknowledges just how much has changed in that time:

“We’ve had a lot of time to grow and reflect in the time between our last album and Decay. WRETCHED is doing what WRETCHED always does, and that’s exploring our environment and leaving room for ourselves to try different things. To sum things up, the new album is dynamic. We go here, we go there, we go everywhere. There is no shortage of groove, heaviness, speed, melodicism, prettiness, and sadness.”

Frontman Billy Powers also revealed that Decay is a full-fledged concept album, tying in with the band’s 2010 sophomore LP, Beyond The Gate:

“Decay is 100% a concept album. Beyond The Gate had an element this record shares — the talisman. I always knew there was more story there and was very excited to join up with the guys again to put that in motion. The first track I wrote was The Golden Tide. I had no idea where I was going to take the story connection to Beyond The Gate until I typed the first line of the song. ‘They began in the dark.’ After that, the lyrics poured out of my mind and by the end of it I realized that this story takes place many years before the content of Beyond The Gate.”

This new story centers around a character named Malus, and according to Powers, the title track reflects the character’s descent into existential ruin:

“In the song, Decay refers to Malus’ decaying existence, the feeling of loss, and helplessness/lack of control he has to influence anything outside of the darkness in which he has been cast.”

He continued:

“The decay of good intention, the loss of loved ones, the influence time and choices has upon our bodies and minds and the decay of the world around us due to the choices of those with ultimate power.

Decay is a chapter in our story in which our main character Malus has lost his physical body due to becoming possessed by an ancient Necromancer. He is just a conscious thought floating through the void between time and space, conjuring a familial djinn named Elturiel to gain his assistance in returning to his mortal shell. This track revolves a lot around out-of-body experience, lucid dreaming, inner voices/internal dialogue, and the potential for reincarnation.

It’s the feeling when you’re so sure that you’ve lost it all, yet you see that little shimmering glimmer of hope at the end of a long, dark tunnel. Then you have the rug pulled out from underneath you to find that the darkness is what you may only ever know. Not to say that all hope is lost because, in the context of the lyrics, it is not. There’s a repeated line near the middle and ending of the song that says ‘once more upon this eternal flat circle.’ It is inspired by True Detective S1 where it’s said ‘time is a flat circle.’ This has all happened before and will all happen again. I’m not a flat earther.”

The video for “Decay” was directed by David Brodsky (Cannibal Corpse, Cattle Decapitation) and is available to stream now.

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Decay track listing:

1. “Decay”
2. “Malus Incarnate”
3. “The Royal Body”
4. “The Crimson Sky”
5. “Radiance”
6. “Clairvoyance”
7. “The Mortal Line”
8. “Behind the Glass”
9. “Lights”
10. “The Golden Tide”
11. “Blackout”
12. “The Golden Skyway”

Pre-orders are live now via metalblade.com/wretched.

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Tour Dates:

With Aether Realm & Paladin:
08/07 Atlanta, GA – The Earl
08/08 Asheville, NC – Eulogy
08/09 Raleigh, NC – Chapel Of Bones
08/10 Greenville, NC – The State Theatre (no Paladin)

With Six Feet Under, Exhorder & Incite:
09/20 Indianapolis, IN – Heavy Hell (Six Feet Under only)
09/21 Columbus, OH – The King Of Clubs
09/22 Baltimore, MD – Soundstage
09/23 Raleigh, NC – Chapel Of Bones
09/25 Orlando, FL – Conduit
09/26 Tampa, FL – Orpheum
09/27 Destin, FL – Club LA
09/28 Baton Rouge, LA – Chelsea’s Live
09/29 San Antonio, TX – Paper Tiger
09/30 Lubbock, TX – Jake’s
10/02 Tucson, AZ – The Rock
10/03 San Diego, CA – House Of Blues
10/04 San Luis Obispo, CA – Humdinger
10/05 Sacramento, CA – Aftershock (Six Feet Under only)
10/07 Seattle, WA – El Corazon
10/09 Richland, WA – Ray’s Golden Lion
10/10 Portland, OR – Nova
10/11 Boise, ID – The Shredder
10/13 Denver, CO – The Oriental Theatre
10/15 Tulsa, OK – The Vanguard
10/16 Des Moines, IA – Wooly’s
10/17 Urbana, IL – The Canopy Club
10/18 Chicago, IL – Avondale
10/19 Cadillac, MI – Venue Event Center
10/20 Detroit, MI – Sanctuary
10/21 Buffalo, NY – Rec Room
10/22 Norwalk, CT – District Music Hall
10/23 Brooklyn, NY – Brooklyn Monarch
10/24 Bensalem, PA – Broken Goblet
10/25 New Kensington, PA – Preserving Underground

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