Tuesday 26 June 2018

Deus Vermin - Monument To Decay


Labels: Self-Released/FHED Records
Formats: Digital/Tape
Release Date: 14 June 2018

Tracklist:

1. -
2. Swarms
3. Iniquity
4. Worms
5. Shrine
6. Planetary Illness

Less than a year after their "MMXVII" Demo, Leeds black/death band Deus Vermin have returned with a new EP. It was self-released digitally by the band on limited tape by FHED Records earlier this month. They've recently played Edinburgh, Newcastle and Hull with one of Edinburgh's newest black metal hordes Ulr, in support of their EP and have been getting a lot of praise from many corners of the Interweb.

It’s sweltering here and I’m not sure listening to black/death metal will cool me down much. The opening song on “Monument To Decay”, simply called - is a noisy instrumental, which is as jarring and an unbearable as the heat of the day. It make complete sense though given the intensity that Deus Vermin creates as they blast into Swarms. The metallic edge of the guitars, the barrage of percussive abuse, the thunderous bass and those possessed growls stoke the fire that was started with their demo and helps in burn with even more vigour. The music is surprisingly fast, especially given the bands that these guys previously called home. Iniquity is definitely more on the death metal side of things with passages containing a ridiculous amount of double bass. Even when they slow the tempo and turn up the atmospherics, the music is still a menacing and unwieldy beast (in the best possible way). “Monument To Decay” is more than a step forward for Deus Vermin, as the recording, mixing and mastering of Tom Dring (Vagrant Recordings) demonstrates. 

Worms is a finely crafted signal of intent. It sounds huge and again shows off the band’s death metal chops. There are so many facets and twists to it that only multiple listens will reveal them fully, which is the same for the entire EP. The grinding intensity of penultimate song Shrine is mystifying, as it’s off-kilter structure tears into your synapse and your soul. It’s worth it for the heavy breakdown-like riffs at the 02:50 mark alone. They leave it till the end to unleash the expansive Planetary Illness, which given its title shouldn’t be anything less. The mighty instrumental build-up leads into a raging beast of a song that encompasses the musical skill and creativity of the band in their entirety. The freedom of expression and the passion that seems to be so prevalent amongst Northern band and especially those from Leeds is exhibited here in spades. This EP is a throwing down of the metaphorical gauntlet to those more established, as Deus Vermin has written something that could crush almost all of them. 

You can stream and download "Monument To Decay" directly via Deus Vermin's bandcamp page below:-




You can buy tape copies (while stocks last) from FHED Records below:-

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