Vandampire´s full-length debut is an impressive musical effort, pushing and stretching the assumed borders of the genres included in sonorous cascades of vigorous sonics.
The metal scene in the British Isles seems to be oscillating from an ever-sizzling creativity from a plethora of bands these days. With Vandampire, the always trustworthy label Ripcord Records has added one more astonishing band to its roster. The band already has a couple of EPs under their belt, the last one in 2020, when they were a trio. It is as if they tested their musical creativity, combining mellow and delicate with the rawness of dense guitar-based music on their releases.
Now the band has added a second guitar and releases an album that combines the anarchistic nature of fuzzy Stoner Metal music, the immense density of Sludge Metal, and the multilayered creativity that comes from composing Post-Metal, and for good measure, adding some guitar-based sound effects dipping into Darkwave, plus an echo-induced piano. And when we find that Magnus Linberg (Cult of Luna) is at the helm of mastering the album, I know it will be immaculate in its performance because I think he has never been involved in any album that is not absolute top-notch.
The music on the album is fuzzy and heavy with low-pitched bass and the mostly really heavy drumset, sometimes sounding like timpanis. The guitars swell and swirl, making sound effects going high and low and providing warmth through the radiating riffs, sometimes with wah-wah in the mix. There are cascades of heavy riffs, but the band also shows its ability to create breathers in dense music, as on the song, “In Ascension“, contrasting the harshness of other songs with delicate guitars accompanying soft and whispering vocals with reflective Darkwave effects. The song has a rise, a yearning toward a placid crescendo that it never reaches as it fades away.
Bringing out this song before talking about the others, means to show the creative bravery of the musicians. As we know, bravery is often connected with how Post-Metal-related music is composed and perceived. The album, of course, consists of fuzzy, dense glissading music centered around a thunderous rhythm section. It opens with the track “Only Truth“ where the guitar effects rise slowly and indistinct sampled voices are heard. The sound effects grow stronger with a sense of a cello gliding into Darkwave sonics as Industrial effects are heard in the background, and the track then shifts into “Hope Scars“ which opens with resounding hits on the floor drum. The sound effects are lifted into the cascades of a fuzzy guitar and low-pitched bass guitar pushed by the drums. It fuses into hoarse vocals and one guitar slides with fuzzy glissandos on the side, forming a heaving and sinking melodic theme.
Already in this song, we encounter what distinguishes the band: the use of guitars as both dense fuzzy riffing, with a higher-pitched guitar gliding along with the heavy stem of the rhythm section at the center of the sonics. The sliding guitars form melodies, swirls, engage the other instruments, and are utterly captivating. The ever-changing guitars are all over the sonics and drums, sometimes as loud and deep as timpanis, and make a thunderous impact with the low-end bass guitar.
On “Eaves“, the music fuses into full-toned, resonating sonics with strong vocals struggling in the middle. The pace changes as the bass pushes and gliding guitars form a melody in the always-changing flow of heavy and layered music. The guitars are reaching out around the sonorous stem of the rhythm section and chugging guitar. The sonics become vast and open with the guitars floating around and a constant surge as the music billows forward with stomping rhythm and guitars in somehow controlled anarchy. Then the music gives way to sound effects, once more dipping into eerie and unpredictable Darkwave elements creeping slowly onwards with indistinct sampled voices and laughter in the intense flow sounds, ending abruptly.
The song “Ultralow“ has this fascinating part where the guitars are riffing high and low, while the rhythm section holds the dense heaviness. Then the music sinks into a deep hollow with the bass and drums hammering on in the distance, and sounds from the guitars flow in all directions before it fuses back together with a high-pitched yearning guitar in the mix flying high above impenetrable sonics.
Before the album ends, there is another breather in the track “I Will Miss Everything I Forgot“ with strumming and mellow acoustic guitars accompanied by sliding, lingering sounds from a guitar. It is like a prelude to the last song, “Let Ruin End Here“ that opens with clean guitars before the thunderous musical cascades set in with gliding higher-pitched guitars. It then simmers into a gentler part with strumming clear guitars in the distance and whispering clear vocals. Then it sweeps back into glorious heaviness with shifty guitars on the side. The music turns into elongated takes before hoarse vocals appear in the mix. It is a complex and layered sound by the guitars as the low-end rhythm section pushes forward. It is surging and sweeping; the drums are all over the soundscapes. Once it simmers down and a calmer and distant piano emerges with picking guitar sounds. A hard hit on the drumset brings back layered collapse. The music swells in its density as it surrounds a sliding, fuzzy guitar. The pace changes to trudging before chaos begins to reign in the dense heaviness as static effects from the guitars take over and bring a sense of industrial Darkwave into the sonics until it fades away into a reverberating piano to end the album´s last song.
With this release under their belt, I think we will encounter the band at many venues and festivals in the coming year. And we are eagerly waiting for what is next for the band, hoping their creativity lasts and that it will not take another five years to the next release. But no pressure guys, we can wait.
