OWDWYR – Receptor (Self-Released)

Wednesday, 11th October 2023 By Katarina McGinn

Rating: 8.5/10

OWDWYR’s promo description sets it up for some pretty lofty expectations. A merger of death, prog, and grind that is all rooted in a classical core – you know something like that is going to be out of this world, provided the band can actually pull it off. Piling on to those wonderfully descriptive words about the band is essentially a who’s who of names in extreme metal drumming that have lended their skills to the band, as well as some added vocals, saxophone, and piano (some names include Navene Koperweis, Kevin Paradis, Kenny Grohowski, and many more). The scariest part about Receptor? It manages to beat its own hype, generating a mindfuck of an album that does all it intends to in a unique way that people will inevitably be impressed by.

First off, there’s a precedent that seems to be set in more recent years that when there’s a classical influence, it has to have this big, symphonic sound like Fleshgod Apocalypse or Dimmu Borgir. Thankfully OWDWYR avoid that more bombastic sound and instead settle on something that’s more unsettling, and even more chaotic. There’s a frenetic energy that’s heralded by the band’s grind influences, and it gives them a more unhinged approach that works wonders. The closest the band comes to the afore-mentioned acts is the longest cut on the album, “Ein,” which weighs in at 5 minutes. There is an opening piano that gives it that pure, classical feel, but it’s quickly annihilated by swirling guitar riffs and off-beat, jazzy rhythms. Intricate, proggy bursts also permeate the track and elevate the madness – though the band never brings things to a point where it all feels too much. Some well placed murky grooves, galloping melodies, and more make the track feel surprisingly approachable considering how much is going on over those 5 minutes. It’s a great cut to get to know the band with, and gives a pretty thorough sense of what they are about.

Other cuts worth mentioning span the gamut of influences and sounds the band wants to explore. The Morbid Angel-y grooves pair with proggy fireworks over the course of the equally stomping and head-exploding feels of “Ripped from the Bog,” where the caustic grind-y insanity of “Cower” is going to make some heads hurt in all the right ways in it’s nods to jazz (including saxophone) and proggy tech death guitar flash & fury. “Writhe” takes the same level of shortened grind time-span and goes directly for the throat with reckless abandon. Lastly, the final track “The Sputtering Torch” doubles down on the band’s sense for grandeur – tapping into the classical influences without overdoing the symphonic side – making an extreme metal attack while embedding some melodies and power to it to provide a fittingly epic yet brainmelting finish.

Receptor shines because it manages to combine all of these extreme elements into a jazzy, classically influenced package while keeping it brutal. It’s not sterile like much of the tech-death landscape currently, instead hurling head-rattling riffs into a primal and occasionally grind-y attack that assaults your senses while still stimulating them (yet not to the point of leaving your head mushy). It’s an incredibly balanced and refined effort that clearly took a lot of effort to arrange in such a way. That alone should warrant a few listens from much of the extreme community.