What’s going on Butcher Crew?! It’s Your Master Butcher, The Saw, and I have an album that is a contender for my 2021 album of the year. Fragments of a Bitter Memory by Dying Wish is the band’s debut album that was released on October 1, 2021, via SharpTone Records. I have been a fan of Dying Wish since I first heard them back in 2018. I was super excited when I heard that they would be coming out with their first LP. 

Although I have mentioned before that my favorite type of metalcore is 2000s metalcore because of how heavy it was. I like the wave of metalcore that Dying Wish is riding. Other releases within metalcore have not turned my head or made it to my music library because it was always missing something – brutality.  But Dying Wish understood the assignment and created a record that has catchy hooks, fast tempo changes, and riffs that will for sure make you bang your head. The album pays tribute to the traditional mid-2000s metalcore sound and also adds some new school components.  

This album hits on several different themes with each song on the record. For example, Blood Laced Memory touches on institutionalized racism, and the title track, Fragments of a Bitter Memory speaks on vocalist Emma Boster’s trauma growing up with a violent alcoholic stepfather. The album also touches on more personal and political issues throughout each song. 

I love the lyrical component within this album and also the style in which Boster uses her voices (musically and personally). Boster has a great vocal range with powerful growls and screams but also a very beautiful singing voice. I enjoyed the combination of clean vocals and screams. The band didn’t overuse clean vocals but also didn’t repress them either. 

Overall, Fragments of a Bitter Memory will make you bang your head and play air guitar throughout the 35-minute playthrough. There is so much going on, musically, with the guitars and the riffs in each song. It gives the album an edge and also brings in that old-school metalcore sound. 

If you haven’t heard of Dying Wish, well now you have. Be sure to check out this album, it’s sure to give you tons of joy. 

Favorite songs: Innate Thirst, Until Mourning Comes, Now You’ll Rot, and Enemies in Red. 

Rating: 9/10 

Stay Metal, 

THE SAW