Wounded Cross – Our Future Is Dead

Wounded Cross

Our Future Is Dead

Independent Release

Doom/Stoner Metal

FFO: Black Sabbath, Trouble, Saint Vitus, R.I.P., We Sell The Dead

Wounded Cross have had a rather unorthodox delivery of their debut album and in summary, it was over before it began. The band performed heavily during the 2015-17 period before calling it a day. However, back in 2017, the band did record ‘Our Future is Dead’, an album which would not only be their debut, but also their only album with this offering only officially seeing the light of day now.

                It is a shame that this is the only offering from Wounded Cross, not only is the album title spookily prophetic for the band, but ‘Our Future…’ is actually decent. There are some excellent tracks here that have all the hooks and melodies required for the listener to thoroughly enjoy causing multiple play throughs without it becoming tiresome or predictable. Tracks such as ‘Shadowplay’, ‘Cosmic Annihilation’ and ‘Rough Spark’ really drive this album along with its classic heavy metal sound and groovy swagger having all the appeal of Black Sabbath, Trouble and Saint Vitus without relying on doom drudgery. However, there is one track which elevates itself above the others and that is the zephyrean nature of ‘Ashes’, a track where Tom Love’s guitar flutters beautifully having all the hallmarks of John Frusicante if he was capable of playing with any balls.

                Ultimately, the production isn’t great for ‘Our Future…’ but the album accomplishes what it sets out to do and in the end, that is all that is needed. There will be better albums this year, but that does not take away from this honest, decent and above all, enjoyable album.

Adam McCann