Rating: 5.4

Country: Germany

Release Date: 2005

Track list:
1. Krebskult
2. Superparadigma
3. Wachkoma
4. Graufilter
5. Holzklasse
6. Macht der Beseelten [mp3]
7. Kein Gesicht
8. Dogmafalle
9. Tunnel
10. Redeschleife
11. Letzer Ausgang Opferrolle/Reste der Vergangenheit

Total Playing Time: 23:55

Band Website: Wojczech

Wojczech - Sedimente

Danilo Posselt - Vocals
Andy Colosser - Bass/Vocals
Stephan Kurth - Guitar/Vocals
Stephan Gottwald - Drums

After 10 years of intense gigging these German stalwarts have finally created their debut full album. The 'Sedimente' portfolio demonstrates a cohesive and direct approach to music-making with a warm and live feel to proceedings. The percussion is prominent and clear in the mix, effectively balancing the coarse but warm bass sound. Certainly, the Colosser/Gottwald rhythmic accord is probably the main strength of the band, effortlessly guiding the simple structures through their various tempo changes.

This belongs to the metal/punk/hardcore genre rather than grind, with infrequent blastbeats used to exaggerate rather than to crush mercilessly. The triple-vocal attack gives credence to their grindpunk intentions, including some harmonised Deicide growls amongst the yells. However, there is a serious problem with this album in that the combination of bland song structures (i.e. riffs put together randomly) and a very insipid/slack guitar sound/performance takes the wind out of their sails. I am suprised that someone like Harris Johns (legendary producer for Sodom, Kreator, Pestilence and Voivod) was satisfied with the tinny higher pitched guitar tracks sounding like low fidelity black metal during fastpicking and the dissonant chords being poorly resolved. As a simple point of comparison, the intro to "Redeschleife" that sounds so similar to Atrocity's "Love is Dead" has only a fraction of the impact of the latter.

Bizarrely, there are two tracks that seem to have significantly more bite (particularly in the discordance) than the rest. "Kein Gesicht" is energetic, unsettling, rhythmic and concise. "Tunnel" is dynamic and catchy, showcasing for the better Wojczech's ability to integrate melodic hardcore, stoner groove, introspection, dissonance and speed. Overall, however, 'Sedimente' is a mediocre studio effort and I expected so much more from a veteran underground band.

March 15th, 2006