Album Review: Wounded Touch – A Vivid Depiction of Collapse (Smartpunk Records)

Michigan metallers Wounded Touch will release their brand-new album, ‘A Vivid Depiction of Collapse’ on May 16th, 2025, via Smartpunk Records.

I think the opening track of this album might be one of the best opening tracks I’ve heard all year so far. Not just because it has Wounded Touch unleashing a cacophony of hardcore-infused metallic vitriol, but because it has this really imaginative start involving a computerised voice repeating the words ‘show me how to make your pain my own’, before the guitars and drums add punctuation, and then the vocals arrive, and measured chaos is unleashed. I don’t mean to bang on about one track over another, but I love this punchy start, and it set the bar really high for me.

A bar that isn’t necessarily topped, but a bar that is met by several other absolute bangers.

Bangers like the abrasive ferocity of Shield of White Roses, the stompy Dreams in Triage, the punk-inspired Choleradio, and the venomous Consequence and Broadcast. The first half of the record is beastly, brilliantly so, but what also makes these tracks special is the creative touches that give Wounded Touch’s metallic hardcore sound a different vibe. Namely the mathcore side of things. Often where the record ends up being particularly creative sounding, especially as it creates a whole new degree of challenge.

Challenge that most will delight in experiencing though, as in a world of ‘heard it all before’, Wounded Touch really do feel like they’re doing something different.

Delivering a sense of safety, momentarily, [Save Point] has nice melody and retro ambience (is anyone else just thinking about Resident Evil/Silent Hill when listening to this!?) and serves as the perfect halfway point of the record. Refreshing the palette, ready for The Damning Variable to arrive in chaotic fashion. Noisy? You have no idea, as this is Wounded Touch letting loose, and it freaking slays.

The latter part of the record just gives us even more bangers to enjoy too. Every Grieving Piece being one of the more elaborate and alternatively tinged efforts, changing tempo as it goes on, and delivering a surprising amount of emotion. Then there is …And Taketh, melodramatic and experimental (certainly different too), before An Unscarred Purpose arrives with impressive layers of melody and metal, showing just how developed a musical palette Wounded Touch have.

Capping off a banger release? It’s a dark, moody, and hyper finale that brings the heavy, and then some. What a beast of a finale Vultures Await Them, Son is. I love it, and so will you, provided you like your metal to come with ideas that aren’t always the sanest.

Wounded Touch – A Vivid Depiction of Collapse Track Listing:

1. If I Could Make Your Pain My Own
2. Shield of White Roses
3. Dreams In Triage
4. Choleradio
5. Consequence and Broadcast
6. [Save Point]
7. The Damning Variable
8. Every Grieving Piece
9. …And Taketh
10. An Unscarred Purpose
11. Vultures Await Them, Son

Links

Big Cartel | Facebook | Instagram | X | Smartpunk Records