ALBUM REVIEW: Vacuous – Dreams Of Dysphoria

UK Death Metal titans VACUOUS are back, after their amazing EP, with a debut full-length. Due via Me Saco Un Ojo Records, Dark Descent Records and FHED on October 14th.

Bleak guitars come to life with a reverberate and spectral opening alongside chiming cymbals. Desolate and eerie, this soon subsides in favour of rupturing rhythmic bellows which provide a cacophony of eldritch atmospherics that build with a charnel brutality. Morbid vocals blend guttural lows with venomously anguishing highs to meet the discomforting nature of the music. While the guitars and bass contort dread-inducing soundscapes upon tastefully punchy drums, there is something very unique about Vacuous’ method of writing music which provokes a very real anxiety while sticking with a very surreal and otherworldly atmosphere. This combined with a punishingly aggressive style of playing ensures a hard-hitting, unusual and evocative experience lies ahead. I must say, this is an incredibly strong start. Having listened to this record a few times already, there is quite a lot that lurks below the surface to be discovered by those with a keener ear. Additionally, it must be noted that these songs are delivered phenomenally live too, as those who read my report of UK Deathfest will know already. Back to the matter at hand, “Dreams Of Dysphoria” promises truly inescapable Death Metal panic.

Continuing, the building tensions often give way to these breaks of bestial ferocity which feel very personal and attack with a ruthlessness that does not come from feigning sonic heaviness but actually being performed by an impassioned band. Naturally, this type of truly savage material cannot be faked and Vacuous are an example of a glistening gem of maniacal and foreboding excellence that will stand out to anyone with any aptitude for finding real majestic morbidity. Offering a blistering inferno of cavernous guitars and unruly drum attacks, the band never rest on their laurels, ever-shifting through perpetual chasms of wickedness wherein a plethora of creativity is invoked. While “Katabasis” showed true promise, this feels like the band have not just shown their potential but actually reached it. Delivering something that feels old school and evil while pugnaciously in-your-face with its personable brand of despairing hatred, it will be impossible to escape the tendrils of tenacity that Vacuous employ.

This body of work may seem very focussed on atmosphere, but fear not, there is such a rivetingly barbarian style of playing happening that clearly strikes the instruments involved with a might most unsurmountable. In other words, brutality is not cast asunder in favour of eeriness but the two in fact merge into a hostile and uncomfortable being of haunting truculency. The way in which we can experience these moments of funereal gloom only to be thrown down into a pit of hysterical and animalistic anger is utterly impressive. Those natural feeling of alarm are perfectly aroused throughout this record, which feels forbidden but also necessary to experience. For all of its punitive nature, the band show some humanity with a short interlude, appropriately titled “Lucid” before finishing us off with one last visceral attack. As things close, most will fall to their knees after experiencing true terror. Those who remain might be curious enough to play it again, and again, and again…

“Dreams Of Dysphoria” is one of those records that can be name-checked when proving a point of Death Metal’s eternal relevance. Containing buckets of cruel viciousness, spasming and volatile songwriting and an atmosphere that lurks with a claustrophobic uneasiness, this monolith of tribulation is one that will never be forgotten. Vacuous’s debut full-length achieves so much more than can be put into mere words and if they can remain (oxymoron alert) consistently unpredictable, then a bright future of murk-dwelling barbarity lies ahead. But for now, enter the labyrinthine disquiet that is “Dreams Of Dysphoria” and bask in the radiant ambience of true Death Metal horror.