_________________________________________________________________________ | . . | . | . | . | . | | . | . | , | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | > | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | ` | ' | | | ' | | ` | ' | ' | ___|___|___|___|_______|_______|___|___|_______|___|_______|_______|_______|___ \______________________________________|______________________________________/ / \ | Artist..: Vastum | >-----------------------------------------------------------------------------< | Album...: Inward to Gethsemane | >-----------------------------------------------------------------------------< | Genre...: Death Metal | Label...: 20 Buck Spin | | Year....: 2023 | Cat.No..: | >-----------------------------------------------------------------------------< | R.date..: 2023-11-09 | S.date..: 2023-11-10 | >-----------------------------------------------------------------------------< | Source..: WEB (24bit) | Encoder.: libFLAC | | Bitrate.: 2998kbps avg. | F.Rate..: 96.0kHz | >-----------------------------------------------------------------------------< | http://play.qobuz.com/album/q8mx5kn065ina | >-----------------------------------------------------------------------------< | Disc 1 / 1 | | -------- | | | | 01. In Bed With Death 5:36 | | 02. Priapic Chasms 6:29 | | 03. Stillborn Eternity 6:04 | | 04. Judas 1:41 | | 05. Indwelling Archon 4:57 | | 06. Vomitous 5:16 | | 07. Corpus Fractum 7:58 | | | | | | --------------------- | | (862.13MB) 00:38:01 | >-----------------------------------------------------------------------------< | Envisioning the colonnade of pain and torturous death ahead step-by-step | | thy savior’s abhorrence would manifest a siphon for the mind’s resolve as | | his hesitation famously begat trembling guilt and a stroke of bloodied | | desperation in the garden of Gethsemane. Listless among the olive trees | | and frantically begging commune with his god-father, the soon to be flayed | | martyr quickly realized he’d not be spared an ounce of agony prophesied. | | Dismissed by the creator and shaken into anxiety beyond his naked pleas | | this horrified state of mind was enough to drive the body to | | hematridrosis, a mindset of such intense existential fear and anxiety that | | the body sweats in watery waves of reeking blood. Sanguine sweat per the | | revelation of the forced fate of the god-son offers just one dark window | | into the elusive mysteries of Oakland, California-borne death metal | | quartet Vastum‘s fifth full-length album, a feat which returns us to their | | cruel realm of death-erotik pummel in seeming muse upon terror, | | molestation and submission. ‘Inward to Gethsemane‘ once again attacks the | | senses of those who reach for the depth of meaning in death music first, | | lacking none of the subversive symbolic depth these folks are known for | | while also hammering home the obvious grotesqueries of each vignette as it | | comes into focus. Unnerving, warping the mind’s path with a heartily | | disgusted yet strangely torpid tone and wild-eyed delivery these folks | | once again iterate upon the miserable dread of their prior actions, thusly | | following exacted parameters in crafting mid-paced death metal textures | | which romp and stretch in development of coldly surreal statement. | | | | Formed circa 2009 Vastum gathered as a crew of five folks from the | | Oakland-area extreme metal/metalpunk milieu during a time when key members | | of Acephalix were increasingly aimed toward their interest in death metal. | | The folks assembled all but guaranteed a unique result and for my own | | taste their first two records with Kyle House on guitars, particularly | | ‘Patricidal Lust‘ (2013), earned quick fandom from me per a disturbed and | | unique aesthetic/personae within the ‘old school’ adjacent mid-paced death | | metal mind palace. A dual-vocal approach, dark psychosexual lyrics and | | very strong production values would come to define their gig as a third | | album (‘Hole Below‘, 2015) introduced new guitarist Shelby Lermo (Ulthar, | | Human Corpse Abuse) and a different sort of tension to their already | | atmospheric yet still very riff-driven sound. If there is an easily | | perceived progression we can identify in rushing through the catalog of | | the entity it is one of increasing interest in atmosphere, leaning into | | the Incantation-esque reaches of doomed death and I’d say the sludgier | | bounding of Morbid Angel beyond the more kinetic, abrupt shuffle of their | | first few releases. ‘Orificial Purge‘ (2019) seemed to be the peak of this | | idea, and one of my favorite releases from the band to date overall, but | | as we step into ‘Inward to Gethsemane‘ this new release is perhaps the | | most patiently developed, inner abysm-cast iteration on their modus to | | date. | | | | There is a droning, unfocused callousness to ‘Inward to Gethsemane‘ that’d | | made its first impression simmer in mind to start. Vastum have been so | | consistent in terms of their production values, frequency of riffcraft, | | and such that this one still felt like it had all the right moves but this | | time they’ve lead with a shove back to a double arm’s length distance. The | | body-horrible intimacy of past records is still there but much like | | ‘Orificial Purge‘ they’re less intent on simply rattling off ‘old school’ | | death metal riffs in one ear and out the other. Otherwise I’d begin to see | | the hand of each member’s songcraft clearly creating a larger divide | | between an interest in surreal atmosphere and their most direct | | riff-punched momentum, these differences naturally resolve throughout the | | full listen but there is some manner of uncomfortable tension which | | lingers on the surface, and still manages to feel like a palpable | | continuation of what Vastum have always been all about; Though I will | | (once again) duck out of attempting any serious analysis for the lyrics of | | vocalist Dan Butler and crew beyond what is plainly disturbing at face | | value but I would venture that the music and lyrics are exacting in | | complimenting mood and scene built for death metal’s inherent morbidity | | thrust into face. | | | | Upon this marbled altar, penetrated. — The album’s opening and closing | | moments develop the proposed atmospheric indulgences most heartily, | | drinking directly from the font they’ve long curated while boasting some | | fresh vocal exaggerations and fluid atmosphere on “In Bed With Death” in | | particular. If you’d felt like the prior album took few chances the less | | than lucid drift felt on the opener here carries through most all pieces | | found on ‘Inward to Gethsemane’ generally speaking, though the follow-up | | of “Priapic Chasms” is the first big riff-driven groove up front which | | emphasizes the stellar pairing of Earhammer engineering and Audiosiege | | mastering, serving a song which will best pull in folks looking for boldly | | stated rhythmic indulgence. For my own taste it would be “Stillborn | | Eternity” which first grabbed me by both ears and yanked me into the album | | face first, not only for the shuddering riffcraft and surreal backing | | vocal chimes from Abdul-Rauf but for the spoken-sung deadpan from Butler. | | One of my favorite signatures from the band is this style of vocal | | intermingling which takes the mid-paced roll of a groove and gives it a | | ‘Disincarnate‘-era Loudblast surrealism with those eerie spoken temporal | | lobe-set voicings illuminating certain pieces or moments within with | | discomfort, insertions we’d found most often on ‘Hole Below‘ prior. The | | rest of the song goes on to develop a few trashed-out transitions, crusted | | and bounding quick changes and such in showcase a of a slightly more | | fleet-footed Vastum which we haven’t necessarily dug into as adeptly since | | ‘Patricidal Lust‘. The first three pieces, or, Side A will be energizing | | for the returning fan as we find the band are still getting weird but | | haven’t cut the riff count for the sake of atmospheric temperament. | | | | “Indwelling Archon” offers another reminder that these folks have always | | had some direct relevance to the post-millennium exaggerations of the ‘old | | school’ death metal zeitgeist of the late 80’s/early 90’s USDM scenario, | | still rooted in this sense of self in terms of crafting their own tuneful | | presentation but not locked into those tenets in an exacting sense any | | longer. A few slaughterous riffs and big groove provides enough of a | | centerpiece for the moment and modulation gives the impression of an | | ominous, shifting but complete enough statement. A complicated way to | | explain the efficacy of ‘Leprosy‘ and ‘Severed Survival‘ style riffs | | invigorated by time (and some moshable side-stepping) but these sorts of | | rhythms often feel like sorcery in Vastum‘s hands thanks to their rich | | sonic depth and very strong rhythm section. “Vomitous” feels like a direct | | extension of that piece for similar reasons, if not for its | | rabid-and-rattled vocal tradeoff. | | | | All modern paradoxes read the same, as announcements of death. — I’ve | | never found Vastum‘s work anemic in terms of rhythmic interest, or, riffs | | in general though in this case those bigger moments are inserted as spikes | | within the waves where dread and distance, increasingly antisocial means, | | set the scene on the horizon. I think this’d been most clearly showcased | | as the astrally projected estrangement of closer “Corpus Fractum” arrives. | | The two vocalists trading and colliding in their statements as this final | | sluice of a song avoids the usual turn of phrase into brutality isn’t such | | a shock to start but the headier drift which follows amidst its downward | | facing chorales create a unique sensation which hangs in the air for the | | next couple of minutes. As the guitarists thrash into a sort of early | | Finnish death feeling cemetery crawl-and-roar section, flattening it with | | double-bass pummeled motion rather than the expected d-beaten sluice, | | completing the surreal stretch of the song which of course doesn’t read as | | anything all that special on paper but it acts as a strong bookend to the | | full listen. I enjoyed seeing more of this atmospheric and unpredictable | | side of Vastum overall, we’d gotten shades of it on ‘Orificial Purge‘ but | | this album seems to embrace the distance and create a deeper sense of | | disillusionment with it. | | | | ‘Inward to Gethsemane‘ does a fine job reminding us of Vastum‘s | | long-standing high standard for death metal which is viably atmospheric, | | plentiful in terms of notable neck-shaking riffs which are at least ‘old | | school’ adjacent in their tradition while also providing some manner of | | evolution within each release. Though their work isn’t progressive the | | deeper layers of meaning, expression, and arrangement are yet thoughtful | | and symbolic in a profound way when examined under a closer-in aperture. | | As I begin to count the virtues of their nauseating craft I’d have to | | conclude this latest work continues to make the argument that their gear | | is still very much worthwhile for my own taste. That said, this entry | | might take a bit longer to bloom in mind and slowly shock with its | | inward-set extremity and I’m not sure that moment will arrive for everyone | | as there is an introverted tension which lingers through its presentation | | that’ll may potentially read as subtle to anyone not already invested. | \_____________________________________________________________________________/ ixxu!imp