Vorum
Poisoned Void ()
Wydane przez Woodcut Records/Firebox RecordsRok wydania Kraj FinlandNapisał Wouter5
I wasn’t exactly very fond of Vorum’s debut EP "Grim Death Awaits" from 2009. Unfortunately my opinion on them still hasn’t changed fundamentally, although I appreciate the effort Vorum has done to decide which course to take. Where their debut EP was a disparate (and hardly unified) sounding combination of old – and new school death metal traditions "Poisoned Void" falls squarely into the traditional end of the spectrum. But, Wouter, you love this stuff! How is this different? Well, the long and short of it is that mixing various genres tropes together and throwing some speed and crunch into the mix simply does not a pure death metal record make. You see, this is a band wanting to prove to you how metal they are, by showing all their various influences and inspirations in the hope that they can pass it off as songwriting. This is not songwriting, friends – this is simply aping better bands. Over the course of the record you’ll hear passages that remind of Angelcorpse, pre-"Testimony Of the Ancients" Pestilence, Incantation, Asphyx, Morbid Angel, Thanatos and so on. A record is supposed to flow naturally, not tick off boxes people expect to hear. Not that any of it is bad, or terribly performed – far from it. I just feel no spirit, no intent beyond sounding like all those popular bands back from the ‘90s. I enjoy this record for what it is, greatly even – but from a critical standpoint it has no basis or substance to speak of. This is what matters, metal bands should always possess substance. Because if you want to rely on style and gimmicks, I could just as easy recommend you to turn on the radio and hear whatever prefabricated popstar is popular right now, that would fill your need then. No, we are metalheads, we aspire to a higher spiritual ground (and hopefully to a higher standard of our collective recorded output). I adore what Vorum is doing. I just don’t find it very good, or worthy of recommendation.
www.woodcutrecords.com, www.firebox.fi
