It’s a well known fact that I’m not a big black metal fan. I fucking hate 99% of it. Every band seems to be content playing one of four basic styles; raw black metal, folk black metal, melodic black metal or gothic black metal. Each style sucks equally. It’s very rare to find a black metal outfit who refuses to remain constrained to the limitations of the genre and to find a band who releases unique material that’s highly entertaining is almost unheard of. The debut full length offering by Australia’s RookWood entitled You Worship Shit happens to be one of those rare diamonds in the rough.

Combining elements of melodic black metal, raw black metal, blackened thrash metal, blackened punk and “black’n'roll”, You Worship Shit is 35 minutes of infectiously catchy raw blackened thrashing punk n’ roll spread out over 8 violent tracks. RookWood are one of the few black metal outfits I’ve heard who can combine the rawness of the most chaotic black metal, with gentle melodies, catchy riffs and memorable choruses.

Unlike most black metal releases RookWood‘s drummer isn’t a relentless blasting machine, he actually displays skill and a great understanding of how to play drums so it flows with the music rather than just blasting away like a mindless retard. Each song on You Worship Shit has a great flow to it. Every song has moments that’ll leave you banging your head and starting one man moshpits as well as moments that’ll leave you nodding and swaying and then there are the choruses that are so catchy you can’t help but shriek along (ie. "Black Is The New White").

You Worship Shit is entertaining from the opening note to the final chorus due to two simple reasons; RookWood aren’t afraid of variety and they know how to write a great song. The riffing is incredibly tight for a black metal release with plenty of groove, anger and melody to keep you on your toes at all times.

You Worship Shit is easily the best black metal release I’ve heard in 2008. It’s raw, it’s catchy, it’s violent, it has a great powerful production and it doesn’t sound like a typical generic piece of shit! I’m not an expert on the black metal genre, but I know what I like, and I fucking love RookWood‘s You Worship Shit! Highly recommended!

Review byTeufel