UMUR "Temple of Red" is the debut full-length studio album by Canadian metal act Wetwork. The album was released through Musty Music Productions in 1998. After this album Wetwork would change musical style to a technical death metal style, but that´s not at all what "Temple of Red" is about.

On this album we´re presented to an adventurous mix of thrash metal, alternative metal and a couple of semi-progressive elements too. While there are heavier moments on the album, there are as many sections on the album featuring clean guitars. Those sections occasionally cast a nod towards goth rock acts like The Mission and the Sisters of Mercy. The vocalist has a voice and singing style that is so close to the voice and singing style of Dave Mustaine (Megadeth) that it´s almost eerie and therefore a Megadeth mention is inevitable.

"Temple of Red" is a concept album featuring 14 tracks and a total playing time of 27:56 minutes. Half the tracks are shorter interludes with narration that explains the storyline, which features an anti-religion theme. While the story is as such rather banale and the narration occasionally sounds a bit forced, it´s like the concept part of the album has grown on me the more I listen to the album. The relatively amaturish sound production brings my enthusiasm down again, but there is something charming about the album´s atmosphere and the musicianship is decent too.

On many parameters "Temple of Red" is an imature and amaturish release and the fact that the band didn´t continue down this musical path, is probably further proof, that they weren´t very successful with the album. But I´ll go against the grain here and say that I personally really enjoy the album. There´s something about the dark atmosphere, and the adventurous approach to writing music that´s refreshing and interesting. You can´t really pin down what genre tags would be the right ones for "Temple of Red". For that it´s too diverse. That´s of course not a quality on it´s own, but there´s something irresistibly charming about the unique sound of the album that I greatly enjoy. A 3 - 3.5 star (65%) rating is warranted.

Conor Fynes 'Temple Of Red' - Wetwork (3/10)

Before becoming the female-fronted death metal band that they as best known as, Wetwork was something quite different; a cross of grunge rock and thrash. 'Temple Of Red' is the debut album from this Canadian band, and being one those who first heard the band on their latest album 'Synod', it came as something of a surprise to hear the band playing such a different style of music. As I was expecting though, the music is roughly made and lacks much in the way of tact or aim, a weakness that the band has suffered from over the course of their three albums. A very loose concept piece, 'Temple Of Red' is an attack on deistic faith and religion that ultimately bores, and feels like a lukewarm rehash of other bands' ideas, rather than something new.

Although there are fourteen tracks here, half of these consist of interludes, pieces of dialogue that Wetwork have sampled in order to get some sort of running narrative going. Most of these dialogue pieces are from Christian evangelicals, and from what I can tell, I think that Wetwork is trying to underline their hypocrisy, or something. Really, the band's attack on religion feels superficial more than anything, and- need I even say- the whole 'religious criticism' thing has gone a little overboard by this point with metal. All the same, it does create a sense of flow to the album, and it makes it a little better than a mere collection of songs.

When it comes to the music itself, I was surprised, yet very underwhelmed. Parts of this (particularly the track 'Staining The Shine') gave me a Soundgarden vibe, while much of the rest had a distinct Megadeth feel to it, circa their 'Countdown To Extinction' album. The vocalist here (a male, not female) sounds like he's trying to emulate Dave Mustaine's nasal attitude-heavy voice, and while he does it well enough for a listener to easily draw the comparison, the actual singing here is lacking. It takes until the fourth track for there to even be a semblance of metal here, and when there is something 'metal' sounding, it's very poorly produced, and the distorted guitars suffer from a very muffled sound, as if they were jamming a room away from the actual recording equipment. Instrumentally, the most interesting thing here are the clean guitars, which are plain, but functional, and Wetwork uses these cleaner tones alot here. For anyone thinking they were receiving a heavy album here, think again; 'Temple Of Red' probably has more to do with alternative rock music than metal, and uninspired alt rock at that.

Wetwork give a disappointing introduction here, although it is interesting that they made such a drastic change in their sound. All the same, this is quite a weak release, and it fails to strike me in any particularly positive way.

Conor Fynes 'New Start Human' - Wetwork (3/10)

Wetwork is a Canadian technical death metal band, and while they have all of the musicianship as the style might imply, I have never found myself much connected to the music they make. After a somewhat interesting debut with thrash metal in 'Temple Of Red', Wetwork change their style to what they are best known for in their second album, 'New Start Human'. Here, this quartet plays a somewhat odd brand of death metal, dabbling in some mild psychedelic influence all the while being fronted by a female growler. Although technical death metal has never been my thing, I do know what I like, and I'm afraid to say that 'New Start Human' does not meet the standard for me. While their sound has hints of promise, all too much of it is laid waste by shoddy production values, a lack of band tightness, and shallow songwriting.

Likely the thing that Wetwork is best known for is their still-rare status as a female fronted death metal band. Although this particular trend is spearheaded by Archenemy, there are a few bands that do this, although I have rarely felt that the use of a female growler is anything more than a gimmick to pull in listeners with sex appeal. Vocalist Kristen Parker does have a growl to her that's unlike the gutturals of a male, and it does well to give Wetwork a slightly more identifiable sound when they're doing their tech death material. As far as their death metal goes, there are some good, crunchy riffs here, and even slick bass licks. All of these musicians are quite good on their own, but recording together, everything feels just a bit out of sync. It is entirely understandable that an underground act would not have a load of resources to polish up their albums with, but not playing well together is something that cannot really be excused.

As far as the vocals go, they are arguably Wetwork's most defining trait, and also the worst. Parker's growls are alright, not suitable to my tastes in death metal, but I would not call them bad. Where things start to go wrong are these spoken word sections that the band does so often, where she simply speaks words in what sounds like the most contrived monotone imaginable. Sound fun to listen to? It's really not, and by the end of the half hour that this album goes on for, every gimmicks wears thin. In terms of highlights or anything, 'My Poltergeist' is a track that stands out for me, particularly the instrumental build-up ant the beginning. It demonstrates some dissonant work with the bass guitar that I really like, but as a whole, the song never goes anywhere within its six minute length.

I would say I am disappointed, but I have never found myself too impressed with anything Wetwork has done, unfortunately. Perhaps elements of this band's sound such as the female vocals are simply a matter of taste, but the lack of band precision is something that I cannot really excuse.