Photo by Stanley Gravett
“Relentless, pummeling death metal.” – Metal Injection
Watch/stream VACUOUS’ “In His Blood” HERE.
Hailing from the withering depths of the UK, VACUOUS makes their Relapse Records debut with their new album, In His Blood, set for release on February 28th.
An overdose of death metal, In His Blood is a compelling mix of blazing speeds, chilling atmospherics, and angular riffing that brings the band into their own unique space. “We’ve talked about having different influences, and it felt like a bit of a dare to push things further,” guitarist Michael Brodsky says. “Back in death metal’s formative days, with bands like Autopsy, Obituary, and Incantation, none of those bands sounded like each other: they were just pushing their collective influences together to the extreme. I think we’re still doing the same thing, just from the point of view of people who grew up in the 2000s.”
“We put a lot of ourselves into In His Blood,” Brodsky further elaborates. “Our goal was to pull in our personal influences from different genres of music, blending everything together and pushing it all to the extreme in a very bold way. It’s raw, organic, unhinged, and at times, very imperfect, but feels like our most personal and honest music to date, which is what death metal is all about ultimately – to us, anyway. We can’t wait for everyone to hear it and couldn’t be more excited for the legendary Relapse Records to be releasing it.”
Today, VACUOUS shares the official video for the album’s title track, “In His Blood.”
Watch VACUOUS’ “In His Blood” video on YouTube HERE. Stream the track HERE.
In His Blood will be released on CD, LP, and digital formats. Find preorders at Relapse.com HERE.
In His Blood Track Listing:
1. In His Blood
2. Stress Positions
3. Hunger
4. Flesh Parade
5. Public Humiliation
6. Contraband
7. Immersion
8. No Longer Human
One look at the striking, blood-soaked cover art for VACUOUS’ second album In His Blood, and you know the London-based death metallers aren’t messing around. Examining ideas of violence and voyeurism, the album’s title was inspired by a disturbing image the band came across on social media.
“It was a picture of a man who had killed someone, just posing, standing in their blood,” says VACUOUS’ frontman and lyricist, Jo Chen. “It got me thinking about how we consume images of death: it’s become so normalized.”
“The internet is like a graveyard of people’s trauma,” adds guitarist Michael Brodsky. “Seeing all that does something to you as a person.”
VACUOUS focuses less on shock value and more on emotional response. And while they definitely see themselves as death metal, they prioritize atmosphere over genre in their music. “We come from different musical backgrounds,” says Brodsky, “but we all like music that’s dark, raw, and atmospheric; that has a bleak but honest feel to it.”
Brodsky and Chen formed VACUOUS at the end of 2019. They started as a trio but when the pandemic hit, they hunkered down to write and realized their ambitions demanded a bigger band. They’re now a five-piece, joined by Max Southall on drums, Ezra Harkin on guitars and Zak Mullard on bass. Their debut album, Dreams Of Dysphoria, came out in 2022, but it’s with their new, second album In His Blood that they’ve really hit their stride.
From the roaring, quick-fire intensity of the title track to the haunting atmospherics of “Hunger” and the cinematic rumbles of “Contraband,” with In His Blood VACUOUS pushes the limits of what listeners might expect from death metal.
Under the overarching idea of violence and voyeurism, in the album’s lyrics Chen explores a number of topics including horror films, serial killers, school shootings, toxic masculinity, and the Global North and South divide.
“The song ‘Contraband’ is about the thirty-nine Vietnamese migrants who were suffocated in a lorry trying to come over to England,” Chen notes. “It was such a tragedy, but it was blink and you miss it; news today and gone tomorrow.
“I was born in London, but my family are from Malaysia, which is historically a poor country,” he continues. “There’s such a juxtaposition when I go back there. Here in the West, generally, people are often so comfortable. The only access that some people have to extreme poverty and violence is online.”
In His Blood was recorded at Holy Mountain Studios in Hackney with Stanley Gravett, who Brodsky and Chen agree was crucial to the finished product.
“This was the first time we’ve had any external help with arrangements which has been really good,” notes Brodsky. “He was super invested in the record and helped us to unify everything. I’m really proud of how it sounds.”
For the album’s eye-catching cover, the band wanted the viewer to feel as though they’d just stumbled upon a crime scene. It was shot in an abandoned building in the middle of a cemetery in London, by photographer Oscar Foster-Kane.
Going forward, VACUOUS wants to keep pushing boundaries, being spontaneous, and taking risks. “We want to have a discography where every album is distinct,” Chen says. “We don’t want to feel like we’re repeating ourselves. You think of a band like Carcass, who do this and it’s super fun to listen to. We just want to keep trying something different.” [Bio by Hannah May Kilroy]
VACUOUS:
Michael Brodsky – guitars
Jo Chen – vocals
Max Southall – drums
Ezra Harkin – guitars
Zak Mullard – bass
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