Vasaeleth - All Uproarious Darkness EP (2013)

What a title, what a cover, and what a level of expectations for creepiness this thing had set before I heard a single sound off it. All Uproarious Darkness is visually comparable to the Crypt Born & Tethered to Ruin album, but privately I had hoped it would expand Vasaeleth's sound upward and outward. Alright, maybe those are not the best terms to apply here, since the band's aesthetics are so deeply rooted beneath the dirt, but that's really an obstacle so many of these acolytes of the old Incantation, Autopsy and death/black war metal bands face: how to refine a template and deter potential monotony they might face from repeatedly dipping into the same, opaque waters...a hurdle that this duo does not quite leap, but at least tries to sneak around.

If anything, All Uproarious Darkness is uglier and more primitive than the full-length, a real racket of primordial tremolo picking and Neanderthal gutturals that seems like they stepped into some weird alternate reality in which Wells' Morlocks had taken over the planet, and paid bloody, black audio tributes to their pantheon of deformed deities. The drums and general pacing of half the material fit both the black and death metal paradigms, which reminds me a little of the ugly Canadian war metal outfits of the 90s, but over the top you've got these utterly barbaric tremolo picked riffs which eschew harmony and memorability for sheer Cyclopean force, while the gutturals just soak in the cavernous atmosphere much like they did on prior Vasaeleth records. Occasionally the beats will slow down to a death/doom step, but I found some of these sequences really vapid in structure and even less likely to create much of an impression than the rest...even some of the unexpected, clever chords they'd occasionally spat out on the full-length album seem to have gone the way of extinction here, and beyond a few of the lurking, eerie turns and patterns in "Fathomless Well of Ruin" and "Throat of the Grey Watcher", I found myself a little bored listening through this.

That's not a fault unique to Vasaeleth, of course; I feel like so many of these suffocatingly underdark death metal bands usually have about one album in them which sails by on atmosphere and all the best accumulated riffs they can muster, and then when it comes time for a successor they just tend to stay too snugly in their wheelhouses. Yeah, it's a little strange to call extremity like this 'snug', since it would freak most of the humanity the fuck out while they struggled to even identify it as music, but it just doesn't come across as if a lot of effort was placed into it. Crypt Born & Tethered to Ruin was an excellent control group from which the band could have branched out and summoned up something truly impressive, but I'll be the first to admit I don't want to hear 10 more albums just like it. This 5 track EP is not an exact duplicate, but sojourns along an even more crude course which thrives on loyalty to its gloomy designs rather than the composition of unforgettable, evil songs. Some might love it for that very reason, but I just wanted something more daring and horrifically adventurous.

Verdict: Indifference [6.5/10] 

https://www.facebook.com/Vasaeleth

Vasaeleth - Adorned & Iridescent EP (2010)

It's a curious thing to return to that leading edge of the cavernous death metal conglomeration so prevalent at the turn of the 20-teens, and Vasaeleth's Crypt Born & Tethered to Ruin was an effort I was somewhat fond of when it dropped in 2010 through Profound Lore. Adorned & Iridescent was a 7" 'preview' of sorts for that album, put out by Satanic Skinhead Propaganda and Blood Harvest Records, with two of the album tracks and a B-side which is, in retrospect, probably the only reason to check this out. This might lack that morbid, distinct color artwork by Antichrist Kramer that they used on their later releases, but the contrast of the band's superb logo against the black/white cemetery photo is still quite pleasing.

Adorned & Iridescent, like its full-length sibling, is essentially a paean to Incantation's earlier material, Immolation's debut and the churning, raw miasma of horror cultivated through the first few Autopsy albums, only this is seen through the lens of younger individuals who wanted to take those subterranean aesthetics and lavish them with a turbulent but modern, reverberating production which might lend it a better sense of 'setting'...if your setting is six feet beneath a sepulcher. You've got the roiling, tremolo picked guitars which feel like someone stirring your intestines with a ladle, with a few bridges towards death/doom territory with morbid, plodding chord progressions or even a few harmonics for eeriness. The guttural vocals are more like some caustic underground gas being blown across the ceiling of the caverns, than anything distinctive or easy to pick out from the music, and this is where that Craig Pillard influence comes in. The drums, on the other hand, seem sternly black metallic in focus, blasting nihilism which combined with the low end-ness of the whole recording almost grants it a coldness like the vast space between celestial bodies...

The riffs are alright, but occasionally they'll throw in a dissonance or unexpected left-hook chord which helps justify the largely predictable patterns they were producing (at least for anyone who had been around death metal in the late 80s/90s). What struck me about Vasaeleth was just the overall feeling you get when listening...some of the music is kid's stuff in terms of songwriting, but it most certainly felt like the raw breath of aeons being blown into your ears when you place it in context with what the duo of Antinom and O.A. were attempting to achieve. Unfortunately, for the EP itself, its little more than a footnote, since "Figures of Chained Spirits" and the title cut are better placed in among their six neighbors on Crypt Born.... "Unmanifest" has a more black metal current in the drums and chord choices, but I've also had that impression elsewhere in their catalog, and it's pretty flush with the two A-side tracks. At any rate, this was retroactively consigned to oblivion when the album dropped several weeks later, and it's ultimately useless to do much other than look at or listen to the third tune, decent if not mandatory; but it would not have been an unworthy introduction in 2010 if you couldn't grab a copy of Crypt Born, which just sounds better in general.

Verdict: Indifference [5.25/10] (call forth your name which mine becomes)

https://www.facebook.com/Vasaeleth

Vasaeleth - Crypt Born and Tethered to Ruin (2010)

I can't claim to be enamored of every artist to arrive down the Profound Lore pipe, but I also can't deny that they're doing something right, with an ear for some authentic and refreshing takes on old sounds. This is where Vasaeleth comes in, a collaboration between drummer Antinom (also of Texas's black metal squadron Dagon) and 'O.A.', who handles the rest of the instruments. The great cover art, worthy of a sigil from some noble house of the drow of Menzoberranzan, is an instant plus, building up anticipation for the band's aural capacities. And once you build the courage to journey inside its subterranean halls, your ears shall be greeted with a righteous blast of indignant, old school grinding death metal which will floor you like a hellish steamroller.

And we're talking old school. In fact, the sound it most closely resembles to mine ears would be the first two full-lengths of US veterans Incantation, simply for their low-end vocals and the gurgling force of the guitars. But Vasaeleth have more tricks up their black magick sleeves, for the subtle incorporation of atmosphere through the haunted synths that often swell up in the background. But the guitars are so thick and juicy, like a fresh steak carved from some recent human sacrifice, that these other elements are kept far from the fore. Instead, prepare for 30 minutes of bludgeoning, multi-tracked guitars that ooze forth out of every cavity of Hell, and a cavernous, crushing weight reminiscent of last year's fantastic offerings from Funebrarum (The Sleep of Morbid Dreams) and Mexico's Denial (Catacombs of the Grotesque), or the other Texas band to delve into these depths: Decrepitaph.

There is not a track among these eight which will remove you from the experience, but to center in on a few specific pieces that terrified me, I would have to begin with "Gateways to the Cemetery of Being", a brooding, doom-laden death-bog that provokes a crazy ass, popping squeal among the chords half way through that I found irresistible. "Spirit of Noxious Miasmas" is likewise very slow, and highly atmospheric, like being violated by a some Shoggoth while you are planted face-first on a cold marble altar, blood-candles burning about you and your eyes affixed to the knife that will end it all once the extraworldly fiend has had its way. For more uptempo fare, try the turbulent rhythms of "Curse Seeping Through Flesh" or the grinding molasses of "Figures of Chained Spirits", or brave the ungodly depths of "Adorned and Iridescent". You can't really lose with Vasaeleth, if you enjoy one song then the rest will follow.

I know you, Old Hag.
Who arrogantly struts in mosques--watcher of the sacred.
I, inhaler of the Black Curse, provoke your cowardly presence.

Is there a downside to this style? Not exactly, but I will admit that the band aren't big on individual riffs. The guitars are constantly crushing your neck, but this is not the type of album you'll be running back to for specific moments. It's better just to sit through the whole beast, and let it lull you into claustrophobic horror while it vampirizes the very essence from your blood and marrow from your bones. The lyrics are very simple, but also conform wonderfully to the tone of the music. Crypt Born and Tethered to Ruin is not a perfect debut in the grand scheme, certainly you must be in the mood for what the band is offering, but if you're ripe for a dungeoneering escapade among the columns and caverns of hopelessness, I haven't heard much else of late that functions quite so fiendishly as Vasaeleth.

Highlights: You will need extra torches for this descent.

Verdict: Win [8/10] (dawned in winds not met with radiance)

http://www.myspace.com/vasaeleth