Vulnere band Review: a new age classic
I am something of a cassette collector. I have a handful of them, nothing crazy. just something to listen to without a screen or spotify's shitty compression.
the first of all of my cassettes came from an Olympia based record shop called Rainy Day Records. where I picked up THIS puppy.
(actual cassette I own)
I stumbled upon this one while thumbing through the death metal cassettes. the black background with the ruins and the name "Vulnere" hooked me in and I bought it.
See I have a bit of a philosopy when it comes to getting death metal. you know it's good when there's one of 3 things. A dark and disturbing and/or ominous cover, a logo you need to double take to read properly, and is Norwegian (Party cannon being a rare exception to all these rules)
And while Vulnere gets TWO of those, they were formed right HERE in the USA, being from my then neighboring state of Oregon which gave me high hopes. After all the Washington/northern oregon where it is constantly grey and rainy for nine months is the most dark and depressing place in America so that is a PERFECT spot for a death metal band.
I gave it a listen and the band is a damn fine example of death metal. They are not a mainstream band, the best bands seldom are, but Vulnere's spotify page only getting 50 listeners a month is criminally low. While not an ICON the band's passion for death metal as a genre comes clear through the entire album and as someone who holds death metal near and dear to their heart, here are my personal thoughts.
Vulnere's Igneous is a relentless death metal album from start to finish, Being someone more into hardcore punk and heavy/melodic metal than death all of the songs sound mostly alike, but that's just how the genre is. Death metal, for ME isn't something I listen to to soak in every nuance and savor the melodies. Death metal is something I listen to when I'm in a certain mood, like when I'm pumping iron or pissed off, in which case the intensity of the music is a catharsis, and Igneous scratches that exact itch.
The vocals are death growls at their finest which adds to the crunch and growly nature of the music, but also makes the lyrics mostly incomprehensible at least to my untrained ear, but the lyrics are hardly the most important thing, Death metal vocals are more about the ENERGY of the voice than the words within them.
The drums I think may be the highlight of entire album, the drummer is clearly very talented and each song has these absolutely relentlessly fast and thunderous drum beats that almost force you to headbang.
the guitar also gets high marks, the riffs are aggressive and crunchy but they're tasty and unique, they aren't just power chords on repeat for twenty minutes, you can hear the shredding and shrieking in each song which gives them real depth.
my only complaint is that the album is very one note, which for casual listening is a big drawback for me, Using one of my favorite albums of all time "When the kite string pops" by acid bath as an example, that album goes from the slow sludgyness of "the blue" to the rock and roll-ish feel of "tranquilized", then the pure aggressive ness of "cheap vodka" to the slow melody of scream of the butterfly. to the groovy feel of "the morticians flame"
Igneous by contrast is pure death metal speed and brutality from start to finish, still. the tracks do have unique touches to them, like from my favorite track, "Conjuration of the watcher by way of three sisters" the album starts off with a slow intro, Then jumps into aggressive speed, with these cutting power chords and halfway through it slows back down again as the singer does these almost whispering death growls which gives it an atmospheric feel before going back into the brutality. This is a personal nitpick however, and for my purposes I'd say that Igneous does exactly what it should.
overall, I'd give the album an 8/10. it isn't the type of album I'll listen to every day, but for when I need the catharsis that only death metal can provide I'll definitely put it on.
Vulnere's Igneous is a relentless death metal album from start to finish, Being someone more into hardcore punk and heavy/melodic metal than death all of the songs sound mostly alike, but that's just how the genre is. Death metal, for ME isn't something I listen to to soak in every nuance and savor the melodies. Death metal is something I listen to when I'm in a certain mood, like when I'm pumping iron or pissed off, in which case the intensity of the music is a catharsis, and Igneous scratches that exact itch.
The vocals are death growls at their finest which adds to the crunch and growly nature of the music, but also makes the lyrics mostly incomprehensible at least to my untrained ear, but the lyrics are hardly the most important thing, Death metal vocals are more about the ENERGY of the voice than the words within them.
The drums I think may be the highlight of entire album, the drummer is clearly very talented and each song has these absolutely relentlessly fast and thunderous drum beats that almost force you to headbang.
the guitar also gets high marks, the riffs are aggressive and crunchy but they're tasty and unique, they aren't just power chords on repeat for twenty minutes, you can hear the shredding and shrieking in each song which gives them real depth.
my only complaint is that the album is very one note, which for casual listening is a big drawback for me, Using one of my favorite albums of all time "When the kite string pops" by acid bath as an example, that album goes from the slow sludgyness of "the blue" to the rock and roll-ish feel of "tranquilized", then the pure aggressive ness of "cheap vodka" to the slow melody of scream of the butterfly. to the groovy feel of "the morticians flame"
Igneous by contrast is pure death metal speed and brutality from start to finish, still. the tracks do have unique touches to them, like from my favorite track, "Conjuration of the watcher by way of three sisters" the album starts off with a slow intro, Then jumps into aggressive speed, with these cutting power chords and halfway through it slows back down again as the singer does these almost whispering death growls which gives it an atmospheric feel before going back into the brutality. This is a personal nitpick however, and for my purposes I'd say that Igneous does exactly what it should.
overall, I'd give the album an 8/10. it isn't the type of album I'll listen to every day, but for when I need the catharsis that only death metal can provide I'll definitely put it on.
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