Review Summary: EEEEEEVVVVIIILLLLLL
Sometimes, all you need is some good ole fashioned, desperately evil death metal in your life. The genre can be watered down at times, especially in this day and age. Bands like Frozen Soul, Gatecreeper and multiple others (yes, I'm namedropping) tend to migrate more towards making chug-heavy, hardcore-inspired death metal that just doesn't do the trick. It's one-note, it's boring and it's just all around not a good time. Then you have bands like Vastum, a band that hearkens back to the old-school way of doing things. Death metal should sound as evil as possible. The bands that pioneered the genre had an emphasis on making the listener feel as uncomfortable as possible, in the best way, of course.
Home Below does exactly that.
This particular album is some of the most cavernous, disgusting death metal that you'll ever have the pleasure of hearing. The riffage is distorted and ugly and makes you feel as if you're inside the belly of the beast entirely. Just the sheer atmosphere is enough to drive you to the insane asylum. Similar to a band like Infester, you can feel the dirt and grime seeping through your speakers or headphones. The riffs are just straight up slimy and really give
Hole Below the sound that so many death metal bands are looking for nowadays and just can't capture. Vocally, the album is all over the place in a good way. You have extremely deep gutturals, you have howls that sound like they could've come from a first-wave black metal album and you have shrieks that will pierce your eardrums until they are leaking blood. Basically, this album is the entire death metal package.
The point I'm trying to make is that
Hole Below is a true death metal album in every concept of the word. The essence of early death metal is present throughout and stays for the entire runtime. This is how death metal should sound my friends: evil, dilapidated and like it came straight from the bowels of Hell itself. Vastum have perfected that very sound for modern death metal and they're one of the leading forces of exactly that. If you like death metal in any fashion,
Hole Below is something that you're going to want to hear sooner than later.
