Reviews: Plague Years, Vomit Forth, Thūn, Defect Designer (Reviews By Matt Cook, Zach Scott, Paul Scoble & GC)

The riffs stand as auditory cocaine, tickling that happy gland you didn’t actually know existed prior to hearing artists at work. The energy as whole can tangibly be administered as smelling salts you inject into your veins. Suffer, the quasi-title track, earned a star in this author’s notes before promptly receiving another. The homicidal introduction riff that shape shifted into a menacing thrashy headbanger by itself warranted adoration; the death-defying bruiser it became thanks to vocalist Tim Engelhardt was blush-inducing. The tremolo-powered anarchic guitar solo and tectonic tête-à-tête was the third layer of icing on the cake. 

Not to be outdone, Make You Mortal is a lakeside stroll before Engelhardt gets his hands on it and throttles the little bastard into submission with a grindcore energy every start-up caffeine-stacked fizzy drink CEO wishes they could harness. The putrid production on Cursed (and the beefy guitar chugs) is nothing more than a wink and a nod: the equivalent of preferring that pizza joint across town that has rusted tables and torn-apart cushioned chairs because you know in your surest of hearts that what’s cooked up in the kitchen is infinitesimally better than how it’s advertised. 8/10

Vomit Forth – Seething Malevolence (Century Media Records) [Zach Scott]

In recent years, death metal has undergone a revitalisation – countless bands, mostly American, are cropping up and introducing much more old school death metal, grind, and hardcore influence into their music and creating a brutal, relentless, and abrasive form of death metal that appeals to old school elitists and more modern fans alike. New York’s Vomit Forth is part of this movement, with their debut LP Seething Malevolence being a brutal attack on the senses.

Starting off with an ambient intro (and featuring an unorthodox noise-influenced interlude I Feel Nothing towards the end of the album), Vomit Forth make it clear they’re not just here to hash out the same tired riffs. When the first song, Eucharist Intact, kicks in, it’s clear what this album is all about – the gritty production by Arthur Rizk, old school riffs, and infectious grooves kick this record off to a heavy start. 

Vocalist Kane Gelaznik has a style reminiscent of early Cannibal Corpse era Chris Barnes’ infamous growls, complemented by Ricky Bryall’s riffs that are chock-full of tremolo picking and abrasive chugging.There is notable influence from early grindcore here, with Tyler Bidwell’s overdriven bass providing a nicely distorted foundation for the guitars. Nick Herrmann’s drum work is solid, not too flashy, and the drum production is exquisitely old school.

The songs are all fairly short, getting to the point pretty quickly which again shows that influence from grindcore and the New York hardcore scene which are both infamous for their musical brevity. Also notable is the effective use of slam riffs in heavy breakdowns, such as in Tortured Sacrament - it’s easy for modern bands to overuse these slam-influenced sections but they are put to good use here. Breakdowns are placed well, devastatingly heavy, and not used as a crutch - another thing that sets Vomit Forth apart from many modern bands. Another thing worth pointing out is the lead guitar work; Bryall’s solo in Unrecognisable is brief but dizzying, displaying a clear affinity for the early to mid-90s era of death metal.

These tracks are well-written, with a good amount of distinctive features between them that makes this album a very enjoyable listen, and it does well to not blend into one long song as many death metal albums can. The production could’ve benefited the guitar work a bit more, as it was very drum and vocal led, and the riffs here are great so it would’ve been good to hear them a bit more at the forefront. The use of industrial-inspired production effects and samples is slightly at odds with the otherwise old school sound of the album, but again this isn’t used as a crutch so it doesn’t particularly detract from the songs. 

All in all, this album is a fantastic modern death metal record with some fantastic riffing, good songwriting, and anthemic choruses, however it is slightly let down by the production and some other features that could’ve been expanded on a bit more to make them stand out even more from the crowd of OSDM worship bands that are cropping up in recent years. 8/10

Thūn - II (Eat Lead And Die) [Paul Scoble]

Thūn are a transatlantic three piece featuring musicians from Britain and America. The band is made up of Jon Higgs on Guitar and Vocals, Hugo Wilkinson on Bass (both from the band Monsterworks), and James Knoerl of Gargoyl on Drums, Thūn clearly have influential friends as well as Nile’s Karl Sanders is a guest, playing all of the guitar solos on this album. Lyrically the band draw from the works of H.P. Lovecraft on this album, carrying on the subject from the bands first, self titled album which was released in 2021. Thūn’s style is a mix of Death Metal, Doom, and Traditional Metal, the Death and Doom are here in fairly equal amounts, the Trad influences are a little less obvious but they are definitely in there. The style of Death Metal is quite old school, reminding me a little of the early nineties scene. 

Opening track, Where All Truths Lie is a great example of this, it opens slow, but then erupts into fast, viscous Death Metal riffs. A couple of the riffs have a thrashy feel to them, which adds to the old school nature of the song, Karl Sanders also plays a cracking solo that is full of squealing dive-bombs that again accentuates the early Death Metal sound. The song does have a slower, expansive section, but it’s mainly about the blasting Death Metal. Thūn are also great at the Doomier side of things as well, the place where this really shines is on the song Kiss The Ground which opens with riffs that sit somewhere between Stoner Doom and Psychedelic Doom, we get a great bluesy solo from Karl, before the track drops into one of the best pieces of Black Sabbath Worship I have ever heard, with a tempo straight out of Children Of The Grave, so heavy but with a groove the size of a herd of elephants. It’s a cracking track, and always put a huge smile on my face wherever I listened to it.

The Doom and Death Metal influences on this album come together really nicely on the track Look To The Sea which moves between slow Doomy parts and fast Blasting sections, but it also has some riffs that feel like a combination of the two giving a sound that I thought was quite reminiscent of Autopsy, it has the same Deeply Unwholesome feel, which is added to by another sick solo from Karl. The Traditional Metal parts are a little less obvious, but in several sections there are Harmonised Guitars that drip Trad Metal, it has a definite Iron Maiden or King Diamond feel to them. The opening of Zero Growth has some great Harmonies before it goes into a mix of Nasty Death Metal and expansive Doom. 

The final track on the album, Final Cut takes a trip through all the styles we have had throughout this album. So it starts with some great Guitar harmonies then goes into huge and slow Doom, after this there is soft parts, blasting Death Metal parts, huge and Heavy Doom parts, Expansive psych Doom sections, more Harmonies, a brilliant solo, more blasting, more Doom; it’s a fantastic mix of everything the band is really good at, and it is a cracking song to end the album on. II is a great album. It feels like it’s constantly moving and changing, the breadth of different style is impressive, but it’s more impressive how they have moulded all these different styles together into a cogent whole, that always sounds like the same band, rather than sounding like many different bands. I should also mention how good the solos are on this album. 

Karl Sanders has excelled himself, playing in several different styles, from smooth technical solos, bluesy solos, and the brilliant old school style of Dive-bombs and squealing atonal shredding, it’s all great. In fact the solos are so exuberant it sounds like he had a great time writing and playing the solos on here, and I had a great time listening. Cracking album, highly recommended. 9/10

Defect Designer - Neanderthal (Transcending Obscurity Records) [GC]

Ok, straight into it there is not an ounce of subtlety on offer from Defect Designer! They offer up a mix of death metal and grindcore and want you to pay attention to them and RIGHT NOW! Brace yourselves as this is going to be hectic! They roar out of the blocks and opening track Neanderthal is full of relentless drums, mental basslines and 1000mph riffs all in the space of 1:03, this is obviously nothing new to grind fans but to someone new to this genre it is a good and fun way to be introduced! 

All tracks stick to the same batshit formula and are great fun to listen to and never really let up which is exactly what is needed, but the standout track is Wrinkles as this throws in some MAD vocals and even funky basslines! For me the only track that needs to be binned is album closer Time, Forward as it’s an instrumental which in my mind anyway really isn’t the way to close an album of this ferocity! All members put in top notch musical performances on this record and are clearly very talented, this album is wild in places and overall it’s a decent listen with loads of layers to get your teeth into. 

BUT its only 7 tracks one of which is aforementioned instrumental, I feel there really needs to be more here to really get a better idea of what these guys can offer going forward as 6 full tracks really isn’t much to be able to judge on!! You feel kind of annoyed that its finished as soon as it started! Providing these guys keep up with this level of musicianship and write longer albums I feel they they can offer an interesting and new view on the grind/death metal mix as there is a lot of potential on show here. 6/10