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For the last two years, Charlotte, North Carolina’s lauded metal monsters WRETCHED worked on the songs that would populate their long-awaited fifth full-length, Decay. Set for release on October 17th on Metal Blade Records, the result is a conceptual masterpiece that blends haunting melodies with progressive complexity.

This fifth album, which is a prequel to 2010’s Beyond The Gate, delves into existential themes, D&D-inspired mythology, and personal loss. The record sees the boundary-pushing lineup breaking past defined walls of their four previous releases. Sonically, Decay may be WRETCHED‘s most pristine-sounding recording, but it’s still raw with a live feeling in the performances. The band didn’t track the parts until they sounded like a computer. You hear guitarist Steven Funderburk pick through the strings and fret the instrument, bassist Andrew Grevey shines on bass with a potent musicality and movement, his parts as much a part of the sound and structure of the songs as the guitar. Vocally, Billy Powers went as raw as humanly possible, pushing himself and the instrumentals to their furthest for an uncompromisingly powerful performance on every track.

“We’ve had a lot of time to grow and reflect in the time between our last album and Decay,” says drummer Marshall Wieczorek. “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.”

“Decay is 100% a concept album,” confirms Powers. “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.”

The LP’s title track and first single contains the album’s main character, Malus, along with a character from Beyond The Gate named Elturiel. “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.”

In broader terms, decay refers to many elements of the album’s story, “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.”

Powers further elaborates, “[The song] ‘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.”

Decay was self-produced with engineering by drummer Marshall Wieczorek, mixed by Johann Meyer, mastered by Alan Douches, and features artwork and layout by Travis Smith (Overkill, Nevermore, Opeth etc). The record will be released on CD and digital formats as well as vinyl in various color variants.

Find pre-orders at: metalblade.com/wretched

Decay Track Listing:
01. Decay
02. Malus Incarnate
03. The Royal Body
04. The Crimson Sky
05. Radiance
06. Clairvoyance
07. The Mortal Line
08. Behind the Glass
09. Lights
10. The Golden Tide
11. Blackout
12. The Golden Skyway

WRETCHED will play four shows with Aether Realm and Paladin later this week. In September, the band will support labelmates Six Feet Under this Fall on their US headlining tour. The tour runs from September 21st through October 25th. Additional will be provided by Exhorder and Incite. Tickets are on sale now. See all confirmed dates below.

WRETCHED w/ Aether Realm, Paladin:
8/07/2025 The Earl – Atlanta, GA
8/08/2025 Eulogy – Asheville, NC
8/09/2025 Chapel Of Bones – Raleigh, NC
w/ Aether Realm:
8/10/2025 The State Theatre – Greenville, NC
w/ Six Feet Under, Exhorder, Incite:
9/21/2025 The King Of Clubs – Columbus, OH
9/22/2025 Soundstage – Baltimore, MD
9/23/2025 Chapel Of Bones – Raleigh, NC
9/25/2025 Conduit – Orlando, FL
9/26/2025 Orpheum – Tampa, FL
9/27/2025 Club LA – Destin, FL
9/28/2025 Chelsea’s Live – Baton Rouge, LA
9/29/2025 Paper Tiger – San Antonio, TX
9/30/2025 Jake’s – Lubbock, TX
10/02/2025 The Rock – Tucson, AZ
10/03/2025 House Of Blues – San Diego, CA
10/04/2025 Humdinger – San Luis Obispo, CA
10/07/2025 El Corazon – Seattle, WA
10/09/2025 Ray’s Golden Lion – Richland, WA
10/10/2025 Nova PDX – Portland, OR
10/11/2025 The Shredder – Boise, ID
10/13/2025 The Oriental Theatre – Denver, CO
10/15/2025 The Vanguard – Tulsa, OK
10/16/2025 Wooly’s – Des Moines, IA
10/17/2025 The Canopy Club – Urbana, IL
10/18/2025 Avondale – Chicago, IL
10/19/2025 Venue Event Center – Cadillac, MI
10/20/2025 Sanctuary – Detroit, MI
10/21/2025 Rec Room – Buffalo, NY
10/22/2025 District Music Hall – Norwalk, CT
10/23/2025 Brooklyn Monarch – Brooklyn, NY
10/24/2025 Broken Goblet – Bensalem, PA
10/25/2025 Preserving Underground – New Kensington, PA

WRETCHED:
Billy Powers – vocals
Steven Funderburk – guitar
Andrew Grevey – bass
Marshall Wieczorek – drums

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