Vacivus hails from the U.K. and they have been working on their special blend of blackened death metal since 2013. This e.p. is available on tape, released by Goatprayer Records and will be released on CD by Hellthrasher Productions later this year. It's a five track e.p., loaded wth brutal and bleak metal, dealing with the occult, death & transcendence. Most of all, of course, this is a punishing piece of music, recommended for any old school fan out there.
What we hear on this album is indeed quite old school and often reminds me once again of the bands on those old 'World Domination' samplers. Bands like Absu, Sadistik Exekution, Obituary and very early Sepultura often come to mind. This means that the songs are filled with thrash metal influenced riffs, a wide variety of drums (but mostly just fierce blastbeats) and morbid vocals. Even the production sounds some of the obscure records from the mid nineties.
My favorite track on this album is the briliant opener 'Dark Apotheosis', starting the onslaught slowly before blasting out in high velocity. From there on the rollercoaster moves forward in fierce tempo and with an intense, destructive force. Although the songs sound quite alike, there's plenty of variation to remain interesting for the entire duration of the e.p. So if you're a fan of the most extreme outburst of nineties metal, this surely is your thing.
Fact is indeed: this record makes me feel a bit nostalgic for those good old days when I listened to those evil cd's from obscure Scandinavian labels. Vacivus did a pretty good job in bringing back that vintage bleak atmosphere that I loved so much back in the days. Suddenly all other metal seemed too joyful and 'commercial'. 'Ageless, Nameless' does exactly that: it smashes the 'nice guys of metal' in no time. I'm getting quite curious about a live version of this one now...
Serge