To say that
Dies Mali goes hard is an understatement. There is no use in trying to sell this to you in a traditional sense. It’s violent and pounding, never really lets up, and doesn’t even let you catch your breath through the rarely tasteful gory audio samples that usually plague this subgenre (thank god). This band falls in line with other brutal death metal contemporaries like Disgorge and Defeated Sanity, combining complex time signatures with blistering chaos.
Brutal death metal as a whole is very unattractive to most. This kind of music isn’t for everyone, and it ironically even alienates most metal fans. And I’m not trying to paint this as some intellectual, ‘high IQ’ music or anything of that sort, because it’s not. Though, the absurd song titles such as
Declithtronicism Hypermalfistic Parasitic Catastrophe might make you think otherwise. Immediately the listener is crushed by a gargantuan force, an energy that wouldn’t necessarily just rip or break someone apart, but an oceanic shroud that would bludgeon and flatten one into dust. At prima facie Vituperate are barbaric and seemingly impetuous in composition, but there is a veiled technicality beneath it all. To the uninitiated, it’s a matter of how much you put into the music. Not necessarily requiring ‘patience’ per se but these songs are all pretty dense despite having an average running time of two minutes. This release stands out in a sea of other bands that have a similar modus operandi because of the awareness and understanding of why people even care about this subgenre to begin with. Because, let’s be real, it’s hard to find bands in this niche that just
get it like Vituperate do.
This specific breed of brutal death metal is most reminiscent of Orchidectomy in style and execution more than the aforementioned bands. The cathartic and tasteful palm muted riffs, ferocious drumming, and grooves are always interesting and the second half of this album is particularly strong. Though I must say, the vocals are quite monotonous and one-dimensional compared to other bands in this subgenre. They actually water down the entire experience, but I digress. It’s no masterpiece, nor is it even some of the best the genre has to offer, but it’s being done the right way. Vituperate’s debut full-length is a success and the band definitely has a promising trajectory in the brutal death metal scene.
