Vastum "Hole Below"

Ever eat a really good meal and then belch loudly whilst patting your bloated stomach with a pacified grin on your face?  Ever had a post-coital cigarette that soothes you that bit more as your testicles shrink back to their normal size?  Or have you ever watched a really good movie and been able to feel really satisfied with the outcome or ending, knowing that during the course of the film all boxes have been ticked and your expectations fully met?

That's how "Hole Below" leaves me feeling after each listen.  It is a bizarre state of feeling content that fills me post spinning of the US Death Metal freak's third opus.  The contents of the six tracks on offer here are every bit as ghastly and ugly as I expected them to be and although there's little in the way of twists and turns along the way there isn't any need for anything other than the visceral assault with which Vastum deliver their punishing style of death metal.


I enjoyed "Patricidal Lust" when it was released. Granted not as much as I enjoyed "Carnal Law", but although the sophomore release did hang around a little longer than it need to it was never unpleasant to listen to despite the lack of real edge in some places.  What Vastum achieve with their third full length is effortless without it ever being clumsy.  It lurches around a lot I grant you but although it may seem like the bastard child of Autopsy at times there is an abrasive cohesion to the atmosphere and depth of the sound.  Listening to the title track you can here the sum of all parts of the machine running in tandem making a glorious hideous harmony of horror and loathing as it does so.  

It is a record that will leave you feeling dirty and grimy like it has dragged you by your hair through a sewer and made you sleep with a vagrant to fully realise the required effect.  At the same time you have no choice but to sit up and take notice of the pummeling fury of tracks like "Empty Breast" which at a moments notice go off on a sonic rollercoaster ride just long enough to punctuate the suffocating ebb and flow of the bludgeoning waves of guitars and (perfectly balanced in the mix) drums.  All the while Daniel Butler continues to deliver his hellish brand of vocal delivery that peels the skin from your ears.  

Basically all the belly thumping, post fuck nicotine fix you'll ever need. "Did the earth move for you darling?"

4/5


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