The recent years has brought about a bevy of bands that have been proclaimed, by their labels, to be the next best thing since Internet porn or sliced bread - whichever you prefer or you may like both at the same time. One band in particular comes to mind - Lamb of God. Touted by their label as "carrying the torch of American death metal", my mind was a bit boggled. I wasn’t very sure about the torch either as I had thought some black metal band had it in Greenland for scary band pictures. Anyway, the only thing I had seen of Lamb of God was opening for Dark Funeral in 2000 and that they had changed their name from Burn the Priest for most obvious reasons. I liked their first album but it was a watered-down version of Today Is The Day. Maybe I’m old school but I figured the "torch" would be passed to a hard-working band that had been in the scene for quite a while. The reason I mention this is because Metal Blade had much praise for Vehemence as part of the death metal elite, a band I had only heard the name of briefly. I had picked up this disc soon before their signing to Metal Blade and the accolades and enjoyed it very much. Vehemence, with this release, prove that a band may be worthy of a larger audience with the release of only one full-length.

Vehemence is extremely down-tuned, straight-forward death metal with unique and interesting accents. Here are some points that are worthy to take note of in order to wet your musical whistle. Firstly, the bottom end of this disc is pummeling; I often roamed the streets looking for a 1987 Honda Civic (total worth - $500) with a massive 12 speaker system (total worth - $5000) driven by some clown with a s.i.b.o. (acronym for a Staten Island Blow-Out, a hair style with shaved sides and a very spiked top as if one looked into a manhole with a grenade in it or how your hair would look after you reach into your girlfriend’s pants and find a penis) and a boner for The Fast and the Furious to merely get a listen of this disc to truly enjoy the bottom end. I would be negligent by not stating that this overall heaviness is throughout every song on the disc, regardless of the speed or mood of the riffs. I have never heard anything quite like this since Mortal Decay’s first full-length. That leads me to the next point - the production is flawless, especially for a self-release. For the most part, I couldn’t give a rat’s ass about production as long as the songs are of some quality. Here, the production boosts the level of the disc by a large margin. Thirdly, Vehemence reminds me slightly of Scattered Remnants for both have (or had) the ability to range from slow, brutal riffs to slightly melodic, razor-sharp riffs. In addition, both bands have a unique approach to songwriting. The songs, rather than being standard fare of boring structures like in much mediocre death metal, the songs become opus-like and are tremendously interesting to listen to all the way through. A lot of thought and time went into this disc and can easily seen from the start of track one. Fourthly, this disc is worthy of listening from start to finish as each song takes influences from varying bands. The first two tracks are mostly slow and pummeling tracks that would induce a mosh pit at a retirement home. The next few tracks maintain this brutality but add some melodic parts, well-placed solos, and slow, grinding riffs, much like the masters Brutality (the band with the worst logo). The final track actually includes pianos and acoustic guitars with standard Vehemence-styled brutality. It really seems similar to the way Immolation albums are structured, with varied moods within each song and how the songs have a natural progression. And don’t forget the typical slow and depressing final track. All of this with deep, guttural yet often decipherable vocals and well-timed highs.

I can’t really say enough about this disc. This blew me out of my Avia’s when I first heard it. It has something for every fan of death metal and even the hard-core purists won’t mind the melodic and dreary parts. I can’t stress enough how excellent this album is and how each song is actually a song in the true definition of the word. I guess you can say that this is a journey of sorts through the minds of these twisted animals from Arizona, the death metal capital of the world. One can easily see how much effort and time was put into this album, from the great songs to the structure of the songs in terms of order on the disc. Metal Blade was very much correct in signing these guys and grabbing them off the "free agent" market. This is a monster of an album and I would advise picking this up before any of their other releases.

Written By: Double Ds