WRISTMEETRAZOR - Degeneration (CD)

Returning from a period of intense and concentrated seclusion in its purest form,
WRISTMEETRAZOR make their return in 2024 with their upcoming third album,
Degeneration. The US metalcore outfit’s latest full length will be released via Prosthetic
Records on March 29.
Following the release of their 2021 sophomore effort, Replica of a Strange Love, the
WRISTMEETRAZOR’s line-up went through of metamorphosis with Justin Fornhof abdicating
his role on bass in favour of lead vocals - bringing Elaine Dalton (bass) and Nate Billmyer
(guitar) to the fold in the process. Extensive North American touring soon followed with stints
on the road among the likes of Seeyouspacecowboy, Traitors, Eighteen Visions and festival
appearances at Furnace Fest and Code Orange’s Code World, respectively. Having solidified
and fine-tuned the strengths of their latest incarnation onstage, the newly upgraded quintet
found themselves with a renewed focus leading into Degeneration’s gestation period.
During this moment of rare quiet for the group, WRISTMEETRAZOR sought the production
skills of Randy Lebeouf (The Acacia Strain, Dying Wish, Kublai Khan). Ushering themselves
into near total isolation in the woods of New Jersey, the writing and
recording process for Degeneration was one of acute solitude, only leaving the studio’s
cabin three times during the 30 day lock-in between almost non-stop 12 hour recording
sessions.
Degeneration’s backdrop of self-imposed seclusion bore fruit as the album’s lyrical focus
began to develop. Whilst there are still traces of WRISTMEETRAZOR’s established world of
Nietzchian philosophy and twisted romanticism, Fornhof found himself gravitating towards
themes of misanthropy, apoplexy, and moral, political and religious hypocrisy within society.
With WRISTMEETRAZOR’s ire pointed outwards rather than inwards, societal degeneration
is explored through allegorical tales of mechanical decline and system failure that pull
together to reveal a larger picture of the band’s disdain for humankind’s more repulsive
traits. Songs such as Turn On, Tune In, Drop Dead, DogdayGod and The Greatest Love
Offering in the History of the World reference intentional exits from society and sordid real
life stories of
assassination, against deftly woven industrial and EBM influences with groove based numetal
flourishes at the fore. Degeneration’s post-apocalyptic production values lend a cold
and methodically calculated quality to WRISTMEETRAZOR’s new skin, without losing the
visceral core of their identity.
Seeking to ensure a fully realised aesthetic to represent the absurdity of seeking justice in an
unjust world, the cover was put together by Philadelphia, PA visual artist Alex Eckman-Lawn
(END, Dim Mak, Woe). Merging what was once flesh with machine and
technology,Degeneration’s visual presentation is a towering counterpart to
WRISTMEETRAZOR’sbleakest album to date.