Vaee Solis : " Adversarial Light "

This band from Portugal takes some of the most hateful vocals to touch a microphone and throws them against some depraved riffs to make for music that brings an uneasy feeling when you are listening to it alone .  The production that makes this possible is impeccable and milks the most anguish out of their performance as possible. The initial slap of this band is powerful, but how well can they you in this mental state for the duration of the album or do we just go back to color by numbers metal?  Equal parts sludge and doom. The have the disdain for melody that a band like Eyehategod possess , but less of the punk ecstatic and a heavier  emotional presence . They use some of  tricks from the ultimate book of  doom metal, but molest them with their malicious intentions.

The title track has the dirty bass tone that is more typical of sludge , but the keep the zombie like pace.  once the drums really kick into the punishment at hand the bass becomes less conspicuous  falling back in the mix.The shredded vocal chord torture  that attacks these songs uses similar patterns. It's up to the guitar to set the tone of these songs. The heavy is pretty much what you are getting here, they have trimmed the fat and using very little to season this razor blade sandwich with. They like to sharpen the edges with feedback. This is doom for fans of crust. It has a very dirty under coating despite the crisp production. Her voice touches on almost a black metal like rasp at times, but I wouldn't go as far as to call these kids blackened.

"Feral Isolation" feel more feral than isolated to me. The vocals take on a higher more crazed gurgle. I doubt they are screaming any real lyrics. The lower death metal vocals that do a call and response with them further my sludge suspicions. The hits begin to linger a little too long and my mind starts to wander away from this album.  The feedback begins to become one of the albums more interesting elements until they let the chords collide in a more sonic manner. At a slower mid-pace the songs have a little more direction and this is coming from a guy who likes funereal doom. This does force the vocals to change it up ever so slightly and a change of pace is really this album needed. The vocals have some nervous break down like temper tantrum not unlike a depressive black metal album. I think once this band begins to explore the more sonic side that is being repressed slightly by the catharsis here they will start writing some damn good songs.They show hints of this on " Cosmocrat" . The chords rings out with that sweetly dissonant darkness I love, the only problem is it is not allowed to really live up to it's full potential. Though some of the songs seem to drag at times this is the only one that goes past the nine minute mark. I have gotten tired of some of the twelve plus minute epics so many bands to so these guys keep that normally reigned in, but if you are going to write a long song you have to have the dynamics to make it pay off. They beat the dead horse in manner that can be pleasing to morbid ears so I'll give this one a 9.