Vomiturition - A Leftover (1995)

Vomiturition's only full-length album was a great payoff from the previous EPs, which were improving in quality, but nowhere quite near this level. While we heard a lot of Florida influence in the earlier material, A Leftover casts a wider net, bringing in a few influences form their fellow Finns and also the Swedish scene. Interestingly, the latter comes more through a sense of composition rather than the ripping Stockholm guitar tone that has remained so trendy over the decades. I can hear a little Dismember at times, but moreover this earns some comparisons to Seance's Fornever Laid to Rest, another European death album which cultivated a clear American influence. There are even some simple, grinding D-beat like rhythms, or death & roll parts to balance out the more technical or progressive components here.

The drumming here is pure thunder, so much going on at times that it can even come off a fraction messy, but it's clearly the beating heart of the material and gives it so much of its fiery impulse. The rhythm guitar is nice and pungent and dense, quite similar to the Head Tales EP, and the guttural vocals have a tone to them which works either as a gruesome guttural or a more raucous bark. The songs themselves are like a potpourri of death metal niches from the world over, sometimes shuffling and dark and progressive, others rocking your face off like a jam between Napalm Death and Wolverine Blues. It might not create its own unique Finnish death metal language like Nespithe or North From Here, but there's just so much happening that it builds Vomiturition into its own little corner of the Finnish scene. While not always catchy, it's always busy, and you can't quite tell what will arrive around any of the riff's corners, making for a fun listen in the mid-90s, and thanks to the potent production this one is still entertaining to listen through today.

The cover art is obviously an improvement, and though there are 12 tracks, they keep it manageable at under 40 minutes. A Leftover is an easy recommendation because it sounds so fresh, and manages to pack together those elements of OSDM, grind, groove, and so forth into something that feels wholly coherent to its gloomy confines. But when I say 'gloomy', I don't mean it's necessary dull or dour, there is an inescapable energy to its design which is constantly rowdy and violent yet dark and oblique. This was yet another gem in the crown of that beloved, obsolete Invasion Records imprint, and a band that would have had plenty of potential moving forward, with this many tools in their torture chamber.

Verdict: Win [8/10]

Vomiturition - Head Tales EP (1993)

Head Tales was the Finnish band's first signing through Invasion Records, and while it might look just as dumb or dumber than the previous EP, the production here is far more brazen, the riffs better and it's just so much more promising, OSDM to the bone. While I still don't believe Vomiturition had as interesting an approach to their genre as several of their countrymen did, this was at least competent and catchy enough to warrant a little excitement. Considering how fans of this style aggressively comb through the ancient death metal texts to find gems of this nature, I'm almost surprised that Head Tales doesn't get more of a mention, it's exactly what so many of them are looking for, and the cheesy head-creature on the cover is worth a gag for 80s horror buffs.

Some of this is actually pretty catchy, like the tremolo picked rhythm in "Falling", or the dank rhythms and vile harmonies that pop up through the flesh of "One's Belief". Or the bass intro to "Ancient Psychotherapy". They get some thick chords here redolent of Obituary, the drumming is quite busy with a lot of solid double bass rhythms and fills, and the vocals are much more gruesome and memorable than on the release before. They even add in a few lines that are a step below, super-guttural like you might have heard on Symphonies of Sickness. It's not all killer material, but it's certainly not filler, and this was a brief, efficient setup for their sole full length effort a leftover that would follow a few years later. Probably impossible to find in any physical format these days, but worth a download or a stream if you can find one.

Verdict: Win [7/10]

Vomiturition - Flesheater Musicians on Their Last Supper EP (1992)

Flesheater Musicians on Their Last Supper sounds like a title which might suffer from English as a second language, or Fingrish, but then again I find it kind of charming, and though Vomiturition's first EP was prior to them joining the Invasion Records roster, it already showed a fairly fun and pulverizing approach to death metal. Interestingly, this band didn't seem to take on quite a unique style as some of their peers like Demilich or Sentenced, but the tracks here had a loosely Floridian feel which felt like a bit of Obituary or early Death with a few nuggets of old Cannibal Corpse that might erupt from time to time. It's got a dingy, murky feel to it which definitely caries the charm of the old turn of the 90s death metal demo years, and enough talent in the riffing and drumming to at least pay attention.

That's not to say it's very good, as the band seem destitute for 'money riffs' that are earned by all the guttural barking, and crawling tremolo-picked rhythms. It never sounds quite as evil as it needs to be, and while it isn't exactly your garden variety brutal DM which was starting to show up here in the States, it does leave that sort of dry impression where you just listened to something that was muscular and forceful but not creepy, atmospheric or memorable. The production is fine for what it represents, with a bass bonging along in there, and thick enough guitars, but the vocals aren't terribly memorable beyond just the gruesome necessity. On "A Journey Through Life", they go for something slower and steadier but it ends up a little dull. But fear not, Vomiturition will improve over this.

Verdict: Indifference [5.25/10]