Review Summary: An interview with a vampire.
It’s hard to sound truly unique making death metal in this day and age. To be fair, death metal has been around for 40 years, so it has pretty much all been done before. Bands do find ways to stand out, but it takes a lot of work and effort. English band Vacuous has only been around for 5 years, but their new album
In His Blood is a refreshing take on death metal that is welcome to this listener’s ears.
These guys are obviously huge fans of bands like Autopsy and Obliteration. It’s extremely evident in the raw, cryptic atmosphere, the muddy lofi riffage and the high pitched zombie shrieks from 6 feet under. This album sounds like it was recorded at the bottom of a bog and I mean that in the best way possible. Doomy riffage pounds through the static creating a sludgy atmosphere full of dirt and worms. The vocals sound as if a 8000 year old zombie was being stabbed through the eyes. Demonic shrieks backed up by pounding riffs and blasts from another dimension come at you for the entire duration of the album.
The uniqueness comes into play in the way the atmosphere is conducted. Vacuous pays homage to fellow English bands such as My Dying Bride and Anathema with their dark gothic atmospheres. There are no pianos or violins to be found and yet these guys somehow found a way to put their own gothic sounding spin on things. The atmosphere is almost black metal-esque in nature with how raw and filthy it all ends up sounding. The ability to blend that classic 90s death doom sound with an Edgar Allen Poe-ish atmosphere in the background of the chaos is just sublime.
In His Blood is a great death metal album on its own, but those extra elements really turn it into something special. We all love pure death metal chaos, but sometimes you need a little bit more. The 1800s vampyric feeling is strong with this one and it adds an extra horror inducing factor to an already great death metal album. Vacuous has found a way to stand out in a genre where it’s very easy to be stagnant. That is no small feat. So drink some blood and jam this album!
