Published on Jun 30, 2004
As much as I like heavy metal, especially speed metal, I’ve
found myself waiting for the “next big thing” for some time now.
Once we got through the magic triumverate of Metallica, Anthrax and
Slayer, things seemed to stop – at least in my mind – when Napalm
Death hit the scene and raised the bar yet again. Since then, no
band has been able to come up to the plate and claim the genre for
themselves.
Sweden’s Vomitory try their hardest on their fourth album
Blood Rapture (their first to feature the same band line-up
for two albums in a row), and the disc, while having the feel of an
EP due to the ferocious tempo of the music despite being a
full-length album, never seems to shift from one tempo. While the
group proves they’re quite capable of playing fast, it doesn’t give
them any room to broaden their horizons – and the disc, in the end,
suffers for that one reason.
Bassist/vocalist Erik Rundqvist has the traditional death metal
growl down to a science, yet the listener can occasionally
understand what he is saying. This puts Vomitory ahead of the pack
in my book – after all, when I buy an album, I want to listen to
it, not treat it like a Peter Pan Book & Record (remember
those, kids?). The twin guitar attack of Urban Gustafsson
and Ulf Dalegren create a powerful crunch, yet there never seems to
be the room for either guitarist to whip out a tasty solo. All the
while, Tobias Gustafsson sounds like he’s ready to annihilate his
drumkit with his ferocious pounding.
Musically,
Blood Rapture does do its job, which is to secure Vomitory
as a force to be dealt with in the realm of death (or speed, or
whatever they’re calling it this week) metal. Yet for all their
technical prowess heard on songs like “Chaos Fury,” “Blessed And
Forsaken” and “Rotting Hill,” the group never seems to change gears
musically, choosing instead to chug on ahead at full steam. This
turns out to be their tragic flaw on this disc. Had they shown a
little more variety in their musical tempos (after all, even Slayer
plays a slower-tempoed song every once in a while), it would have
helped to draw even more attention to their musical prowess.
Where one has to give Vomitory credit, though, is that the songs
are so tightly written that the disc seems to fly by in terms of
time listening to it. By the time “Blood Rapture” comes on to wreck
what’s left of your eardrums, you’ll feel like you’re still
listening to the first five minutes of the disc. Some might see
this as a weakness of the band; I prefer to view it as having the
ability to enrapture a listener, keeping their interest locked for
the entire disc.
In the end,
Blood Rapture proves to be an entertaining enough disc, and
one which is sure to keep your interest throughout its course if
this genre of metal is of your liking. Yet one wonders how much
more powerful Vomitory would be if they added a little more musical
variety to their bag of tricks.