A mate was recently moaning that judging by a list on CDs on Ebay they ‘appeared to have run out of metal band names’ and were just using gibberish. He was faintly amused when I said I had some Witch Vomit to review. Hey, I think it’s a great name and, besides, who doesn’t like to start the day with a healthy portion of witch vomit eh? Clears your sinuses, settles your stomach….
These Portland based death metal veterans have not only played in numerous other bands but have been going under this guise for over a decade now and this is their third album.
A cool very death metal cover, a sombre sounding intro of ‘Dying Embers’ all raw guitar and heavy bass, we enter ‘Endless Fall’. It is pure death metal with rumbling riff, heavy drums and bass pushing the sound and deep growled vocals sounding malevolent and cavernous. It has a neat tempo change, some nice guitar work and then into a mid-paced raging furnace of a sound. So first off this is no frills death metal (a good thing by the way), a pure vein of the genre full of darkness and monstrosity. Very nice beginning.
‘Blood Of Abomination’ has an album NWOBHM guitar squeal opening, before the death metal machine rolls over it. There’s an undeniably catchy sound to the melody line here (and when I say melody I mean in a death metal way, of course). Relentless drumming, tight sound. Great stuff.
The pace slows on ‘Serpentine Shadows’, a sinuous riff, a ponderous pace until the vocals come in. It still keeps that determined, unstoppable sound but the pace almost breaks into some horrific gallop out of some dark void. It’s a truly fine sound; rough but well produced to let the bass come through and the vocals nicely place.
Now I’m not going to try and convince you that there is a vast amount of variation in the tracks here. Witch Vomit have their sound; dense guitars bleeding fuzz around the edges, strident rhythm section powering it from the darkness, cavernous growling vocals. They can turn on the speed in the time of a death grunt and they don’t let up. It is a relentless, pushing force. Occasionally there is a stronger thrashy style mixed in but mostly this is taut but not overly rigid death metal. They can take a breather – the late album instrumental ‘Abject Silence’ is nicely placed. A sombre and almost reflective passage before the final descent into the title track.
All in all this should be a perfect meal for any self-respecting death metal fan. There are no wheels invented here, no avant-garde swirls or technical and melodic noodling. Just straight on death metal with atmosphere and serious intent just as it should be.
Not bad at all.
(7/10 Gizmo)
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