Watain - Black Metal

When even parody bedroom black metal bands make better music than you, you are doing something wrong. Or you are Watain. Or both. The most glaring problem with this band is that everything they release sound like Roadrunner deathcore acts with a bit of black metal vocals and distortion added to hide their nu-metal trails. Watain is for fans of Slipknot and Waking the Cadaver looking for a more 'extreme' style of music, but at the same time not wanting to be challenged musically beyond surface-level use of black metal tropes, clichés and techniques: blast beats, distortion, harsh vocals, lyrical themes about the occult.

Watain's music is closer to what you can find on Roadrunner Records and MTV than to Burzum and Phantom. On top of being one of the weakest and sloppiest black metal acts out there, Watain contributes to cheapening their genre with their sub-IQ lyrics about 'theistic satanism' and faux teenage rebellion, a taste for mediocre Slipknot-esque lyrics they share with Gorgoroth, another clown act that makes a mockery of black metal.

Beyond being generic and formulaic, not to mention derived from deathcore, Watain's music is irritating and offers nothing new or even interesting to listeners of black metal.

Verdict: avoid this band, prefer anything from Darkthrone to Neraines.