If you happen to go to any website where this band is mentioned and post anything negative, you will be ripped apart by the hordes of fans this abomination has. But the question is, "Why?" What redeeming quality does this band have? First of all, the band looks like they stepped out of a rap video, and their merchandise includes shirts along the lines of preppy, as well as a basketball jersey! If you're going to insult us while trying to be us, you can at least try to look the part! And to make matters worse, the music is simply awful. The band just sounds like watered down versions of Dimmu Borgir, Whitechapel (as far as the breakdowns) and Nile just to name a few. Most of the time they can't figure out if they want to be brutal death, metalcore, black metal, or want to completely rip off the band Abigail Williams (which the keyboardist was a member of).

Now, here's where it gets interesting: The music is actually somewhat good. Yes, you heard right. If the band would just stick with one style, symphonic black metal, they would be great. But, they seem to hide their talent in those baggy rapper-esque jeans they wear and destroy it completely with clashing, slow as hell keyboard solos, and breakdowns that consist of one drum cymbal crash and maybe two chords per line of a four line breakdown. Only a few songs, such as "Decimate The Weak," have breakdowns that have a few more crashes and chords. And to make matters worse, they add in the traditional hardcore chants on the same song, as well as others, during what is supposed to be the black metal (or death metal) portion of the song.

The vocals are decent on the CD some of the time, being one of the very few minor redeeming qualities. They sound metalcore, so they fit the breakdowns, even as random things said loudly prior to a breakdown, such as on the song "Origins And Endings." But this is quickly overshadowed by the horrible, unimaginative lyrics that seem as though they were rushed by a 12 year old who thinks Bleeding Through is true brutal death metal. The only real saving point to this release would be the track "Angels Of Debauchery," which actually has some great keyboard work and controlled drumming, lacks three to four breakdowns in a three minute period, and has music that actually sounds good with this vocal style. That's because this song is more of a hardcore track then anything else, which, again, when they focus on trying to be one thing specifically (maybe introducing a slight influence from another style) they have the ability to sound pretty good. But then you get tracks like "Reloaded," which are just laugh out loud bad with horrible music and lyrics that literally say things like "What the fuck is up motherfuckers? This is what it's about, all that 2008 shit. We've got the world in the palm of our hands. Bustas fall down when we're barking commands." This, again, raises the question of why they are in this style mocking us and not in the rap style where they fit in lyrically!

Winds Of Plague show a lot of talent when they sit with one style and work with it. But instead, they seem to merge into various styles, and by doing so completely ruin the CD. When you pass by a used CD bin and find four copies of this release already in it for under $5 on the day the CD is released, you know that this band has failed in some way. Decimate The Weak is just like the band, a plague. This release was either created to intentionally piss off the metal community, or it was made as a total joke that the band refuses to let the world in on.

written by Jason Thomas Weiss

Playing time: 36:55