Shine - Wrathcult - Metal Epidemic

Shine – Wrathcult
Release Date: 30th January 2026
Label: Dark Descent Records
Bandcamp
Genre: Extreme Death Metal
FFO: Emperor, Bathory, Morbid Angel, Entombed, Dismember.
Review By: Mark Young

And as we say Adieu to January, we greet a new name in Polish extreme metal. Shine, with their debut. Taking inspiration from classic names such as Morbid Angel, Bathory amongst others, the accompanying PR promises that we are in for a treat. Being honest with you, Wrathcult is a workmanlike production. It’s extreme in all the right places, but without really thrilling you. It’s neither excellent nor awful, it sits in that twilight between the two, where ideas are executed in a precise manner. It certainly has that Polish way about it, the ability to bludgeon the listener with riffs that fly by and vocals delivered in a way that are proper metal. It’s just a bit dull.

I’m desperate to avoid this review sounding like I hated this, I didn’t and that is the problem from a review perspective. If it was awful, with each track being skipped I would have been fine in saying so. An example here is The Lamb Against the Wolf. It is a good opener but would have been a better opener had they trimmed a minute or so from it, making it punchier. Its aggressive, as is the album, but things feel drawn out and extended in order to keep them at a certain length. Kneels Before the Serpent shares the same issue as its predecessor, a good build that goes on too long. In their defence the songs do fly past quickly but do so without leaving a mark on you, and you can’t argue that this is anything else but extreme metal. Songs like the Horror of the Night and Wrath of the Hammer are built for headbanging, that percussive battering running through them at speed.

It’s important to state that this is an album that has got a lot going on and is typical of a certain style of death metal where less is never more. As a result of trying to cram more than is required into each song, they feel unfocused, at least to me. Being ruthless here would have given these songs a lift, but as it is, Wrathcult is a good start for Shine.