Review Summary: "Censor me, this is present day, we’re still shot for being black or gay." VANT come out with a BANG in their debut album, exploring themes of politics and sexual assault.
VANT. They’re London punk rockers who seem to have forgotten to take caps lock off on their keyboards. Their first LP, DUMB BLOOD, comes nearly 3 years after their initial formation, with their intention to “build a fan base first,” and “release a few more singles” prior to making an album. The latter of the statements certainly rings true when you look and see that seven singles came from the 13 songs on the album
The LP opens THE ANSWER, which begins with an instrumental that clocks in at just over one minute. with melodic guitar lines and a good plethora of effects to make it more interesting, followed by what is quite an anthemic track, with Mattie Vant and the rest band yelling at you “Won’t you give me the answer?”
Something that stood out to me straight away was the fantastic use of harmonies throughout DUMB BLOOD, particularly in the first few tracks. PUT DOWN YOUR GUN features an unusual melody that I immediately fell in love with. It is then followed by quite a standard chorus with the usual alt-rock harmonies, but for me, the pre-chorus makes it a strong number.
It appears as though Mattie (lead vocals) was often in two minds when writing the lyrics to some of the tracks on DUMB BLOOD, as you’ll hear lines such as “Keep sucking my dick, while my friend ***s your mother” (THE ANSWER) then, contrastly, “We need peace and love, we need mother nature” (PEACE & LOVE). To me, it feels like he was trying to mix his heavy PC messages with some unnecessary expletives to please the more rebellious of listeners, which isn’t a necessarily a bad thing, but just feels a bit forced in this case. PEACE & LOVE, the 3rd track on the album, is a wonderfully light and positive track, and makes for easy listening. I did, however, find myself avoiding the embarrassment of belting out the uninspired lyrics I mentioned prior “We need peace and love, we need mother nature” which I think prevents this song from being among the best of the album.
“LAMPOON” is a song that asks a lot of questions of the listener (12 to be exact), and fits in perfectly with the band’s punk rock genre, evidenced by lyrics such as “Everything is fun with this generation, everything is dumb with this generation.” The chorus consists of Mattie belting out the word “Lampoon” a few times, each time asking “Which will you choose?” I enjoyed this song, but it got a little repetitive (which I can say for a number of the ones on this album).
I’d say that these songs are among the most notable, but overall this is a really solid album. There were a couple of tunes I didn’t love (ARE WE FREE? for example, was 7 minutes too long, and left me feeling a bit empty), however, I can’t say I hated any of the songs, which is a testament to the consistency of VANT’s writing abilities.
If you enjoy listening to politically-fuelled lyrics behind heavily distorted guitars, commanding bass lines and drums that just seem to go with the flow a bit (no ground-breaking beats here, unfortunately), then this is an album on your “must-listen” list. In my opinion, it’s definitely worth at least listening to some of the singles. You might be pleasantly surprised.
Recommended Tracks:
THE ANSWER
PUT YOUR GUN DOWN
PARKING LOT
DO YOU KNOW ME?
KARMA SEEKER
TIME & MONEY
