Long, long ago, I owned two Vomitory records: this, from
2002, and its 2004 follow up Primal
Massacre. I knew them both as quality death metal records, but was not at
all familiar with the band as a unit.
Blood Rapture is
the first Vomitory album to see a returning vocalist, as Erik Rundqvist returns
from the Revelation Nausea days, and
this is almost immediately a winning development for the band. Each of the
three previous albums felt like they needed a song or two to get their legs
under them, but not Blood Rapture.
This is a record that starts right away, from the very first, and just chugs
and chugs along until the very end. Another nine songs of top quality death
metal in a completely punishing 32 minutes 41 seconds, a full seven minutes
shorter than its predecessor. I don’t want it to sound like I’m saying that a
seven minute, one track reduction somehow makes the album better than its
already excellent sibling, but somehow, Blood
Rapture feels more compact, and more bludgeoning than its older companions.
I often think that death metal should come in shorter blocks like this,
particularly if it is going to be ultimately a one trick kind of death metal:
and by now, we have established that that’s exactly what Vomitory as a band is.
One single trick, one single gear, all awesome.
The opener “Chaos Fury” begins the album with the familiar
guitar and drums stab, but the first real standout track is “Blessed and
Forsaken,” the third track. “Madness Prevails” is a bit slower, followed by
“Redeemed in Flames,” an absolute rip roaring tune with a slower, heavy as hell
bridge section that earns repeated listens around here. “Eternity Appears”
features a racing riff that again reminds of the best of Dismember or Entombed.
The closing title track is the longest piece on the album, coming in at five
minutes. But it is a slowed down, grinding, martial paced dirge that makes it
seem like a much longer, more epic track.
This entire album shines a very bright light on one of Vomitorys’
great strengths: writing catchy death metal. An acquaintance and I used to talk
about Deicide, and their ability to write catchy death metal: an idea that
never makes a lot of sense when you contemplate it, but when you hear examples
of it, you certainly know it. Deicide certainly was, on their classic albums at
least, masters of this. But Vomitory does this in a far more traditional,
brutal death metal context. I know that you’re never supposed to talk about
melody when you want to maintain your death metal cred, but Vomitory absolutely
has that working for them, and again, not in the Swedish melodeath way.
Four albums in to their catalogue now, and one thing that
Vomitory has not been doing is evolving. From the opening track of Raped in Their Own Blood to the last
second of Blood Rapture, albums have
been a very steady and stable sequence of songs, each collection as competent
and complete as the last. While there are certainly bands and fans and genres
for whom some kind of progress is important if not vital, death metal –pure
death metal, without any gimmicks or fancy frills—usually does just fine by
staying with what it knows. Often times, large or sweeping changes for a death
metal band will drive away a fair amount of fans, more so than are chased off
by a commitment to previous formulas. I certainly do like progression and
change in music, and I usually have no serious issues when it happens. But it
is good to know that sometimes there’s a band. Sometimes, there’s a band. A
band that doesn’t try to change itself or maybe just isn’t interested in
changing. A band that seemingly appears fully formed without the need of a long
feeling-out process of ‘finding their sound’ or trying to appeal with some
gimmick or whatnot.
No comments:
Post a Comment