Two things to consider before playing this album. Firstly “you are going to die,” there’s absolutely no sugar-coating this fact and the warped somewhat familiar and long sample at the beginning of the album will make that quite clear. Secondly, this is absolutely rancid stuff! Vein have a sort of infamy about them although facts are not that easy to establish. They released a 4-track demo tape back in 2013 ‘Into The Vein..’ with lovely track titles like ‘Satanic Ritual Rape’ and then promptly nothing. The US Boston based quartet should have released this album a lot quicker but apparently their drummer Ratt got banged up for drug offences and the recordings got lost. Now though they have mysteriously surfaced.
It’s easy to compare a band to others and indeed here the likes of Sect Pig, Havohej and early Von are mentioned here. In my mind I think of films though and can imagine this lot composing music in their basement torture dungeon with flickering screens showing the likes of Traces Of Death, Last House On Dead End Street, August Underground, Charlie’s Family, Melancholie der Engel, La Trilogia De La Muerte various Guinea Pigs, Red Rooms and Death Scenes. Yep it’s that grimy, grotty, nasty & fetid music here, lacking in anything resembling humanity and listenable only to the most depraved sewer dwellers of society.
That sample on opener ‘Total Vascular Collapse’ is overlong and there are plenty of similar ones found within the music that follows; if you can even call this music that is. Call it black metal, verging on the bestial side and you have a clue to the utter death worship vomited out here in all its lo-fi, dingy glory. Guitars slither and slide with that War Metal slew up and down the scales, drums thud and vocals courtesy of chief torturer and lead guitarist Death Fiend, growl and grunt away in the background. As things progress you notice that everything is coated with a slewed psychedelic form of demented disharmony making it feel like a very bad trip has taken hold. ‘Malign Blood Oath’ echoes with a slimy soiled tumult of skewed sounds reminiscent of the likes of The Ravenous and early Necrophagia as much as anything else. The production is nothing short of grotesque but that just fits the malaise infested horror of it all. ‘The Black Eye Of Eibon’ grinds and winds into The Beyond with inhuman snarls and tentacle slithering guitar wrapping itself around you and refusing to let go. The fact that it hypnotises you as its prey in the process makes it all the more terrifying. That lysergic grip heightened later by ‘L.S.D.’ with its echoed sample and feeling of nauseous displacement is enough to make you want to puke.
Vein give unholy praise to local 80’s act Kilslug with a cover of ‘Warlocks Witches & Demons.’ The original a work of a band who had played ‘druggy, sludgy, heavy music.’ Needless to say the already revolting number is smeared with an extra layer of faeces. Not everyone will make it till the end of this album which is just over half an hour. Those that do have the longest tracks anti-musical excesses and very sharp knife wielded by ‘Bloodstained Symmetry’ to contend with.
Feeling brave, give it a go, what’s the worst thing that can happen to you, considering the fact that you ARE going to die anyway? It’s not the “music” here that has disturbed me but the fact I actually like it! Rest assured if recorded audio output had the same restrictions placed on it as our BBFC do with films, this album would most certainly be banned!
(7.5/10 Pete Woods)
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