Matt Wolejszaโs debut album The Beast Iโm Meant to Be comes swinging with bruised honesty, thick guitar riffs, and the emotional heaviness that sticks to your ribs. Built from years of songwriting, feedback sessions, and collaboration within Baltimoreโs music community, the Gaithersburg-based artist channels personal demons and social frustration into a record that feels unapologetically raw. Thereโs a clear debt owed to Metallica in the crunching guitar work and pounding momentum, yet Wolejsza isnโt simply playing dress-up in metal nostalgia. He uses those influences as a launchpad for something more personal, more wounded, and occasionally surprisingly tender.
โStupidity Gone Viralโ kicks the door open with revving guitars and hammering drums that hit like a fist on a dashboard. Wolejsza sings with tense frustration about internet culture spiraling into chaos, where stupidity spreads faster than truth and reality itself feels endangered. The reckless heaviness works in the songโs favor; it sounds like someone doomscrolling themselves into madness and finally deciding to scream back at the machine. Thereโs anger here, but also exhaustion underneath the noise.
Then comes the title track, โThe Beast Iโm Meant to Be,โ and things get even darker. Grinding guitars twist against thunderous drums while Wolejsza tears into themes of depression, alienation, and self-hatred with almost uncomfortable honesty. He paints himself as a โloser, outcast, monster,โ repeating the crushing line that he could never become anything other than the beast he was made to be. The track doesnโt offer easy redemption or motivational clichรฉs. Instead, it drags listeners directly into the ugly trenches of diminished self-worth and leaves them sitting there in the rubble.
Later, โThe Door That Wonโt Openโ slows the pace into something moodier and more reflective. Thick gritty guitars loom behind weary vocals that sound dazed and emotionally drained, like someone pacing circles through sleepless nights searching for answers that never arrive. Elsewhere, songs like โOne More Hug,โ written about the loss of his cat Bonnie, reveal another side of Wolejsza entirely โ vulnerable, grieving, and deeply human.
For a debut, The Beast Iโm Meant to Be packs a serious punch. Itโs messy in places, sure, but that roughness is exactly what gives the album its pulse.
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Review by: Naomi Joan