Wykked Wytch – The Ultimate Deception CD review

Wykked Wytch is a female fronted, gothic tinged death metal band from Miami, Florida. A band who have been on the scene for a fair few years now, Wykked Wytch have got better and better with each of their albums, progressing their talent as both musicians and song writers. The Ultimate Deception is their fifth full length album, containing some of their best songs to date – as well as being their best sounding album, production wise yet. By combining heavy, down tuned, distorted guitar riffs, driving, mechanical like rhythm sections and a rather demonic, scary sounding female screaming at the top of her lungs, Wykked Wytch have created a monster of an album that will not only blow your mind, but blow your eardrums wide open with its aggressive musical brutality!

It’s great how Wykked Wytch have cut extracts from certain “witch themed” films, such as the opening of ‘Prayers of the Decapitated’ which is from the film Season of the Witch – opening up the songs with a haunting, spine chilling spoken word bit that eventually kicks into some driving, heavy progressive death metal assault, with fast paced guitars and head bounding drum blast beats. The Ultimate Deception is really a dark and rather ghostly album – being both atmospheric and scary through the mix of ambient industrial keyboard sounds and the traditional death metal grind. It really is brutal, and with the song ‘Serpents Among Us’ opening with the blood curdling lines “I said your fucking babies going to burn”, makes the concept behind this album all the more sick and twisted.

The scariest part of this album is front woman, Ipek Warnock’s, rather devilish vocals. She is one hell of a singer, pushing the boat out further than your average metal female vocalist. She has so much raw power and energy, in her rather raspy, low vocals and it’s this that really makes her freaking terrifying.  Songs like ‘Despised Existence’, ‘When the Sleepers Rise’ and ‘Abolish the Weak’ are all made heavier by the fact Ipek’s voice is looming menacingly over them, giving these songs, as well as the other songs on The Ultimate Deception that grinding brutality present!

There isn’t one dull moment on The Ultimate Deception. It’s made up of ten straight up brutal death metal tracks that will have you headbanging, throwing the horns and trying to imitate Ipek’s bear like vocals from the moment ‘Birthing the Beast’ kicks in, to the moment ‘Eyes of a Vulture’ drowns out. This is 46 minutes of pure death metal hell, and if you don’t enjoy it, you have something seriously wrong with you.

With killer artwork to top off this rather brilliant album, Wykked Wytch have released an album which will most likely make a lot of peoples top 20’s of 2012. The Ultimate Deception may be bordering on the rather scary scale, but Wykked Wytch really knows how to shock listeners…… By scaring them out of their minds and presenting them with a selection of brilliant, jaw dropping, death metal tunes! [8/10]