Mass Burial – Vomitory, Revelation Nausea

Oh, 2001. A new millennium was upon us, but we had the same old Vomitory. Whatever that may mean to you, understand that I mean it in a positive way.

Revelation Nausea would feature another new vocalist, this time Erik Rundqvist, who would deliver the growls for the remaining Vomitory albums. His is a good, strong, satisfying death metal growl, closer to the style of Raped in Their Own Blood than Redemption.

Once again, Vomitory rolls out 10 exceptionally satisfying tracks of powerful death metal, with the Swedish elements coming more and more into focus. The band seems to have this thing going where their albums really kick in with the third song. I have no actual way of establishing this, other than to say for three albums now the third track is the one where I find myself sitting up a little straighter and taking notice. This is, in the case of this particular album, not a condemnation of the title track of “The Corpsegrinder Experience,” but rather an acknowledgement of “Beneath the Soil” and the force with which it arrives. From there, Revelation Nausea proceeds to thoroughly entertain with “Under Clouds of Blood,” “The Art of War” and “When Silence Conquers,” before delivering the ending one two combo of “Exhaling Life” and “9mm Solution.”

Three albums in, and I think it’s time to make a statement on the band. Vomitory is, clearly, a very capable and talented band. They would break up after 2011s’ Opus VIII, pretty clearly their eighth album. On the whole, they are the kind of band that screams every thing you love about death metal to the highest heavens. They’re fast, they’re aggressive and catchy, they write some terrific riffs. They are absolutely a band that, over the course of their first three albums’ worth of development at very least, deserves to be recommended to any and everyone who has some interest in death metal, but for whatever reasons were always a fairly underrepresented band. My own discovery of them I’m saving for the next entry, but while Vomitory has never stood out as one of the upper tier death metal outfits, they are hardly unworthy of attention. I think Vomitory may be one of those tragically overlooked bands that is just inexplicably ignored by the wide eye of the scene, only really being found by those fans who are looking for something like them. In many ways, other, more known bands do all the things that Vomitory does, not necessarily better or worse. Bands like Cannibal Corpse and Deicide, and fellow Swedes Grave are examples of more recognized bands that excel at the Vomitory formula. I’d say if you were a fan of those outfits, then Vomitory should be on your list of groups to investigate: you certainly won’t be disappointed, and everyone needs a band like this one to keep your interest in the genre. Vomitory is not a group of also-rans or poor imitators, no: they are clearly doing their own things, and doing them very well, but just never got the credit they should have.

Revelation Nausea, from things I’ve been reading online, is often considered Vomitory’s best album. It is a great one, but personally, out of the first three records, I think I have to give a slight edge to the debut Raped in Their Own Blood, with this one a very close second, and inbetweener Redemption a fair bit behind that. But, Revelation Nausea is apparently the record where Vomitory found its real direction, and this is the template for future records, which is a very, very good sign of what’s still to come.