Winds of Plague Continue to Resist Good Taste and Intelligence on Resistance

“In the land of the blind, the one-eyed man is king.” Winds of Plague are more tolerable than so many of their second generation deathcore peers (e.g., Oceano) because whereas those bands tend to write muddy puddles of structureless slosh, WoP, at least, understand something about the value of having peaks and valleys in your music. Their riffs may not be original, but they are, undeniably, riffs.

Unfortunately, what Winds of Plague possess in structural skill they more than lack in class and intelligence. On their new album, Resistance, the only thing that’s changed is the color of keyboardist Alana Potocnik’s hair. The band never met a breakdown they didn’t love; Potocnik’s chintzy synths still sound like they were sampled from the first Cradle of Filth album; Johnny Plague’s lyrics have all the sophistication of a coloring book. Take, for example, this clever turn of phrase, from the song “Sewer Mouth”:

“You’ve spent your whole life sucking dick, you should be used to this!”

Did a fourth grader write that taunt? You’d think someone who spends as much time listening to hip-hop as Johnny Plague does would comprehend the power of a real zinger, a phrase that is both witty and ferociously mean. All JP can supply is a line that’s worn out, homophobic, and pricelessly lacking in self-awareness (at least one member of his band almost certainly has performed oral sex on a man).

Winds of Plague don’t have to be the kind of band that gives metal a bad name, but they can’t help themselves; they’re metal’s answer to a grown woman who wears bedazzled kittie sweatshirts. No style, bruh.

Winds of Plague’s Resistance is out now. Stream the entire album here.