Everyone in the underground has a story about how they discovered their new favorite band. With social networking websites and blogs having fast become the most common ways to discover such subterranean talent, the traditional methods of studying thank-you lists and seeing t-shirts on other band dudes are still quite effective at making an impression. Case in point, Wetnurse, the NYC-based Seventh Rule recording artists who since releasing their “Invisible City” epic, have set a new benchmark for heavy, profound, and comprehensive fusion music. My first exposure to the band’s equally-distinguishing name came after purchasing New Jersey black/death/hardcore crossover project The Dying Light’s Willowtip Records debut in 2005, the liner notes within which legendary thrash drummer Brandon Thomas formerly of Ripping Corpse and Dim Mak was adorned in a Wetnurse t-shirt. When a drummer that eccentric in style and discerning in taste is seen wearing the Wetnurse logo, it’s a sort of golden endorsement one would be foolish to not follow up on. “Insivible City” directly reflects the contradictory nature of life. Whereas pure metal, hardcore, and punk reflect times of struggle and the constant of extreme conditions, the experience of life ebbs and flows with greater variety and richness than most forms of music are capable of fully encapsulating. Summits are simply much higher up when one begins deep in a trench, and Wetnurse dauntingly represent this normal but equally unpredictable and discomforting characteristic of life with the kind of d.i.y, gritty stylishness one could expect from a group of weathered, hardcore- and punk-bred outcasts existing on the fringe of Manhattan’s glitz and glamour. From the foundation of its very core on out to the minimalist artwork which gazes back at any person lucky enough to wind up in a staring contest with it whether in an indie record shop or online, “Invisible City” promises one thing then delivers another at more junctures than many can digest in the initial listening. Like a young plant, it’s a grower, as they say. But once it grows on you, it’s bound to become a staple among your top choices for catchy, experimental hardcore records that you simply still haven’t managed to classify following years of diligent listening. The best possible explanation for that phenomenon is Wetnurse seem unconcerned with fitting in. From the average six-to-seven minute song length to the final arousing journey of “Slow Your Spell, Missi Hell,” the album’s nearly twelve-minute instrumental closer, it is clear that at no point in its composition nor recording process did “Invisible City” compromise its original intent and fall victim to editing, abbreviation, or simplification. Wetnurse delivers their best here in all its excessive artistic glory. The frantic grind passages on the album sufficiently hint at their wherewithal for speed, and further insinuate that they could be the best art-grind or even experimental grindcore act in the scene if they so desired. The trifecta of death, black, and thrash metal also rear their menacing faces at free will throughout “Invisible City,” so if you need a new collection of disturbing soundscapes to ruin some Morrissey-adoring, fixed-gear bike-riding hipster’s day, this album has potential to serve that purpose; perhaps not to the extent of the latest Nile or Dying Fetus records, but it will do. These brushes with horns-up riffage and breakneck tempos are embedded, even disguised, deeply within the configuration of “Invisible City” amidst the prevailing lo-fi, post-hardcore/noise vibe that seems to tie it all together. Unsettling time signatures make up part of the glue holding the expansive set of Wetnurse’s influences together, and help pull the songs in the direction the band wants them to go, whether the listener is comfortable with that extent of artistic freedom or not. This is especially true during the frequent passages on “Invisible City” reminiscent of riff/stoner/alternative rock, which result in some of the album’s more stirring moments. Such familiar-sounding hooks however do not last long enough for Wetnurse’s music to be accused for being alt-rock disguised as experimental indie; an increasingly familiar trend nowadays.