All That's Behind

I’m not a thrash fan, I hardly ever listen to thrash and I know next to nothing about the genre. And it gets even worse when we’re dealing with old school thrash, ‘cause then I’m just lost. I listen to metal for its brutality, and it didn’t reach my wished level of brutality and harshness until black and death metal was born. I’ve never really been a fan of Metallica, Kreator, Slayer and whatnot; it’s just not my cup of tea and I find it too melodic and mellow (yeah, go ahead and hate me for it). With Vehement’s debut album we’re dealing with a serious dose of thrashing, and I’m betting these lads see Slayer as their house gods.

The musicianship is pretty much top notch, it’s not as sloppy in execution as a lot of newer bands trying to go old school. Each and every second is filled to the brim with a buttload of melodic, chugging, slicing and ripping riffage. They’ve really gone all-out to deliver energy in the riffing department, and it’s quite catchy, even I find it intoxicating at times. The guitar leads are pure and simple lethal, no question about it. Tempo wise it’s mostly fairly upbeat. The faster pace gives it a push forward in aggression, but the groove is imminent in almost every break and slow section. I had some issues with the vocals at first, and it bugged me that they layered it with some growls. But after getting used to it I find it very fitting, since it complements their minor death metal influences well. The main screaming is pretty much classic thrash/crossover, but with an addition of growling.

There’s no need for me arguing whether or not this is great stuff, ‘cause to me it’s good but still not really my cup of tea. But with the quality onslaught of melody, aggression and energy I’d be surprised if thrash fans didn’t take this to heart. It’s classic Slayer with a dose of Pantera to top it off. Ok, so I think the robotic clean vocals in the title track are absolutely abysmal and completely ruins the song, and Memento mori has a passage of pure suckiness, but overall it’s quite catchy. I’m sure I won’t even listen to the album again now that the review’s been written, but I’d still recommend it to a genuine fan of the genre.

Originally written for http://www.mylastchapter.net

This album gives you a raw dirty sound, listening to this album makes me want to go ride a motorcycle in the middle of a desert. It’s a pretty decent debut album. It will really appeal to you if you’re a fan of Slayer, Warbringer or Testament. The vocals are a combination of all three of the bands. Shouting, clean singing and death growling. On some songs they put special effects on the vocals, which I don’t really like very much, but it adds to the album. On the song “Mask” they incorporate some female vocals for awhile, which doesn’t really fit the song at all. “Memento Mori” probably has some of my favorite vocal moments. They start doing a shrill scream type vocal style, which is probably the best vocal moment on the entire album. Shortly after that, they start singing like the lead singer from Godsmack.

The guitar work on the album isn’t anything over the top spectacular for a thrash metal band. The intros to the songs are the best moments in the songs. The riffs are always squealing away at the beginning but once the vocals kick in they get kind of lost in the mix. Some songs have guitar solo’s which are nice to hear, but they aren’t very long or amazing. The best guitar solo on the album is on the song “High Blood Pressure”. It’s slow and drags on for a little while and sounds very blues influenced. Overall the guitars on the album are done well. The drumming on the album is well done also nothing really worth mentioning though, along with the bass which is inaudible. This is a good album and is recommended if you enjoy some good dirty thrash, fans of the newer Slayer era will enjoy it for sure.