Having heard Vile’s Stench Of The Deceased and Depopulate I was left with the impression that Vile were nothing more than a cut-and-paste death metal outfit, grabbing riffs, song structures and anything else that wasn’t bolted down from other bands and passing it off as new material of their own. The band’s Unique Leader debut The New Age Of Chaos does little to alter my perception of the group, although I have come away with a slightly higher opinion of the band as a whole.

While Vile started out as a literal note-for-note clone of Cannibal Corpse the band seem to have expanded greatly from their beginnings, adding elements of several other Floridian and European acts to their overall sound.

Performance-wise Vile are very solid and impressive on The New Age Of Chaos. Each instrument compliments the others; the drumming is strong with plenty of great work displayed throughout, the riffing is flawless, the bass lines, though a little hard to hear at times, are solid and the vocals suit the genre perfectly.

The structure of the songs, and the song writing, however, are pretty dull. Having listened to the album several times I found myself zoning out after the first track each time and it became little more than background music throughout my listening experiences. In the end I come away feeling unsatisfied by the effort, and would rather listen to the originators of the riffs and song structures than these wanna-bes.

For the average fan of Floridian-styled death metal, this effort should suffice as a solid piece of music, but anyone who has knowledge of the material is going to feel greatly under whelmed by the lack of memorable music displayed throughout. How a band can copy so many great elements from so many great bands and churn out an album that’s so lifeless and soulless is mind numbing.

As far as the lyrical subject matter relating to the middle east and Iraq and terrorism and extremists, who honestly gives a shit? Trying to make a political statement using a death metal album as your platform is like trying to understand what the teacher on the Charlie Brown specials was really saying. Does "Wah-wah wah-wah." mean "Your homework assignment for tonight is to learn how to write your own riffs." or does it mean "Jesus Christ, Charlie Brown, you’ve got a big fucking head!"? Only Charles Schultz knows for sure.

Written By: Teufel