ALBUM REVIEW: Vassafor – To The Death

New Zealand’s Blackened Death Metal miscreants VASSAFOR are back with their third full length record, set for release via Iron Bonehead Productions on August 7th.

Monstrous riffs build in with a spacious production, allowing a tense feeling of foreboding to grow slowly. Cymbals chime in and thundering, doomy riffs break out into a dense and eerie soundscape. Creepy vocals emanate from the record as the guitars warp and convulse into a deathly and morbid cascade of total ferocity. The atmospheric side of this material is utterly unhinged while still rotting in the realm of savagely aggressive War Metal at times too, though not of the typical fashion by any stretch. A venomous onslaught of bestial chaos often is never far away, delving into a wretched array of volatile instrumental and vocal hellfire.

A claustrophobic style of songwriting is utilised to maximum potential, allowing the graven howling ambience to achieve a disturbing and obliterating spearhead of utter malice. Relentless and dragging atmospherics meet the most rivetingly potent assault to conjure a diverse and masterfully evil sounding record from start to end. This is something spectacular that has a very unique approach, making the fact it is over one hour long much more enjoyable due to the variety of pace and ideas. Pitch-black occultism can be heard in the ritualistic bestiality of Vassafor, once more mastering the eerier side of War Metal with a fantastically crushing opus of doom.

Often with Black/Death Metal, we expect longer songs to focus more on atmosphere, which is clearly apt here, but the feral aggression is certainly not lost in the process either. Vassafor keeps a primal feel to even the more expansive sections of the record which speaks volumes to the masterful songwriters behind the project. Cerebral yet down-to-earth, there is nothing but daunting and impactful Extreme Metal to be found here. This is one of those record you become lost in while playing, something that could perhaps be attributed to the passionate malice reverberating from every single note played, or the inhuman atmosphere that is concocted by them. Either way, it is intoxicating to be a part of.

Spectral riffing, haunting vocals and cataclysmic drums lead us through a huge range of blistering assaults and enchanting atmospheric soundscapes, offering a magnificent and spiritually visceral experience throughout. A monolithic new record from the New Zealand underground scene. Do not miss out on this enlightening opus of Blackened Death Metal meditation. -9/10

Since writing this, VK has been accused of viewing indecent images of children and although my review is objective, I feel it worth mentioning to potential new listeners.