Originally written by Erik Thomas
Need something to wash away the taste of shit from the new Morbid Angel CD? Well, Swedish stalwarts in Vomitory are here for you!
Along with labelmates Hate Eternal, Vomitory is as pure as death metal gets and with their 8th album, the band continues their underappreciated take on death metal that’s never really gotten them the same level of recognition as many of their peers.
Taking their foot off the throttle a little from the utterly face-ripping Carnage Euphoria, Vomitory’s sound is still intact and satisfying, mixing a more Flordian take on death metal with just a hint of power-chord-driven grindcore or d-beat a la Napalm Death. The mix is savagely rendered with a powerful guitar tone allowing the album more prevalent mid-paced and controlled chugs to breathe and lope with deadly, menacing force. Bassist/vocalist Erik Rundqvist has a powerful deep growl and rarely seems to take a breath. The likes of “They Will Burn”, “Hate in a Time of War”, “The Dead Awaken” and “Shrouded in Darkness” chug along with steady girth, for the most part, although they often inject bursts of rewarding power chord brutality here and there. However, a few tracks like opener “Regorge on the Morgue” and “Torturous Ingenious” are pure, adrenaline-fueled blasts that remind of the last effort through their sheer vitriol.
That all being said, as with most bands of the style and even with their more revered Swedish brethren, there’s a bit of a sense of “same old , same old”, even if what’s here is still awesome — a fact cemented by the album’s more overall laid-back approach. With Carnage Euphoria, the band was still plying the same riffs, but the whole delivery was so intense, you were distracted by how samey the band can sound (on “Bloodstained”, “Forever Damned” and “Combat Psychosis” in particular). With Opus VIII, Vomitory has simply added another disc to their rather unheralded legacy of solid, enjoyable, meat-and-potatoes death metal.
No programming or industrial dance beats here.
