Vastum – Hole Below

[nyrating]

17th November 2015 Reinier de Vries Album Reviews 0

If you hear Bay Area you think of thrash and the eighties. I don’t think there will be many who will mention Vastum. This death metal combo is already releasing its third album and as far as I know they have a kind of crust and doom background. Doom is sure something I hear here, but not a lot of crust influences.

In the faster parts, I have to think of Bolt Thrower and in the slower pieces of Autopsy. The songs have a nice groove as well, which makes them pleasant to listen to. Singer Dan has a very low grunt, but once in a while he screams like a slaughtered pig. You can hear an example for that in “Amniosis”. The band sounds rather dark and spooky, especially in the slower doom pieces. “In Sickness And In Death” sounds rather threatening, but has a nice swampy groove again. The music is heavy and devestating like a rolling tank on a battle field. The drums rattle like a machine gun and some riffs remind me of the first album of Paradise Lost. Especially the dark sound and riffs in the final song gives me that feeling.

If you like brutal scorching death metal sounding like a mix of Bolt Thrower, Autopsy and early Paradise Lost, you should check this out!

Tracklist:

01. Sodomitic Malevolence
02. Amniosis
03. In Sickness And In Death
04. Intrusions
05. Hole Below
06. Empty Breast

Playing time: 37:00

Release date: 6 November, 2015

Label: 20 Buck Spin

Website: www.facebook.com/vastum

About Reinier de Vries 188 Articles

Once a metal head, always a metalhead. My parents thought it would only be a period, but they were wrong. I quit to explain the beauty of metal music to others that are not into metal, because it is something you can't tell in words... It is like explaining to a teetotaller why a cold beer is so nice on a hot day... I started with bands like Accept, Metal Church, Iron Maiden and Metallica in the eighties and I think I will still listen to them when I'm stone deaf and old...