[photo by Chris Johnston]
After four years of near silence, Oakland death metal outfit VASTUM returns with Orificial Purge, the anxiously awaited follow-up to their acclaimed Hole Below. VASTUM‘s fourth album, Orificial Purge is confirmed for release via their longtime allies at 20 Buck Spin on October 25th. The album’s artwork, track listing, and advance single, “Reveries In Autophagia,” are now available for public consumption.
VASTUM‘s Orificial Purge offers a distinctive blend of sinister atmosphere, punishing brutality, and an unparalleled lyrical and visual imagery that traces connections between perversion, mortification, and “an abyssal mysticism of sin.” Elements from previous albums are preserved on Orificial Purge, but they are evolved and devolved at once. The usual mid-paced dirge and cave-dwelling riffs are intertwined with slicing melodic dissonance and a celestial frenzy in the solos and the leads, all of which is set against the background of a bulldozing rhythm section. The dual vocal and lyrical exorcisms of Daniel Butler and Leila Abdul-Rauf combine to deliver unsettling, dichotomous meditations on “abjection as life, life as tragedy, and tragedy as an eviscerating, eroticized rapture through which an evil and useless humanity comes into being.”
With its members playing in Acephalix, Necrot, Ulthar, Mortuous, Ionophore, Cardinal Wyrm, and others, the band’s dedication to their craft is showcased throughout the underground. After three standout albums over the course of the last eight years, the effect of VASTUM‘s influence has by now seeped into the wider death metal scene, leaving an indelible mark due to their singular amalgam of aural primitivism and aesthetic originality. Their most markedly refined and tortured oblation to date, Orificial Purge represents the dominant return of VASTUM, a death-doom band driven by the horrors of psychic and corporeal life.
Recorded with Greg Wilkinson (Necrot, Nightfell, Ulthar) at Earhammer Studios, and visually represented by the brooding abstraction of San Francisco artist Laina Terpstra, Orificial Purge is one of the year’s most vicious and hypnotic LPs. Fans of Bolt Thrower, Undergang, Autopsy, Necrot, Asphyx, Mortuous, Tomb Mold, and Scorched are orificially summoned to take note.
Immerse yourself in the LP’s lead single “Reveries In Autophagia” at YouTube HERE and Bandcamp HERE.
20 Buck Spin will issue Orificial Purge on CD, LP, cassette, and all digital platforms this October 25th. Watch for preorders, additional audio premieres, and more to be issued in the weeks ahead.
Orificial Purge Track Listing:
1. Dispossessed In Rapture (First Wound)
2. I On The Knife (Second Wound)
3. Abscess Inside Us
4. Orificial Purge
5. Reveries In Autophagia
6. His Sapphic Longing
VASTUM returns to Killtown Death Fest 2019 in Copenhagen, Denmark September 5th through 8th performing alongside Grave, Coffins, Abhorrence, Tomb Mold, and many others. VASTUM has also been confirmed to play the inaugural Shadow Frost Music & Arts Festival taking over Frederick, Maryland February 21st and 22nd, 2020. The band joins The Chasm, Primitive Man, Thantifaxath, and labelmates Magic Circle as one of the event’s main headliners, and guitarist/vocalist Leila Abdul-Rauf will also perform a set from her solo/ambient project at the fest as well.
VASTUM Live:
9/05-08/2019 Killtown Death Fest – Copenhagen, DK [info]
2/21-22/2020 Shadow Frost Music & Arts Festival – Frederick, MD [info]
VASTUM:
Daniel Butler – vocals
Leila Abdul-Rauf – guitars, vocals
Shelby Lermo – guitars
Luca Indrio – bass
Chad Gailey – drums
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