2010 and 2011 have been host to some good Metal releases. Vomitory's eighth studio album titled Opus Mortis VIII is one of them. The album was highly awaited by fans of the band and Death Metal in general. Vomitory are known to be consistent as all their previous releases have the proper blend of brutality and old-school vibe. Even though their sound doesn't change much across albums, they manage to keep it fresh with newer riffs and energetic songs. I'd dare compare them to Bolt Thrower - they are consistent, rarely change their sound, but always deliver.
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| The album art kicks as much ass as the album |
Opus Mortis VIII is slightly different from other Vomitory albums as here they concentrate more on mid-pace riffs and drumming rather than in-your-face brutality as seen in Terrorize, Brutalize, Sodomize. They do speed up at places, but the level of brutality doesn't quite reach high enough, and is as brutal is Blood Rapture at most. But that can be ignored as brutality is just an added element of their music. The highlights of the album are the riffs. They are all over the place and cannot go unnoticed. Each riff is catchy-as-fuck and headbangable. There are breakdowns too. Yes, breakdowns as in the ones usually present in Swedish Death Metal, more closely related to "Thrash Breaks" rather than -core breakdowns. Most of songs sound like a cross between Asphyx and Slayer, and the band has apparently cut down on blast-beats and super-fast riffs, which, even though present, are scattered across the album just in few places. The riffs on Forever Damned and Combat Psychosis are especially memorable. Just listen to the break in Combat Psychosis, and tell me you weren't imagining swinging an axe towards someone's neck. The whole album is full of such moments and it doesn't get stale.
The band's overall sound has remained largely unchanged with this album - the guitars sound muddy as always, the drums reek of brutality when they blast away. Each snare shot feels like a sledgehammer and in mid-paced section, they provide a sufficient groove. The bass drums pound away all the while like no tomorrow. Erik Rundqvist does a great job on vocals. He is guttural, yet comprehensible enough. Erik's vocals lack variety, but are consistently brutal and do the job well for a bassist-vocalist. The album is bass-heavy too. That combined with the muddy guitar sound is reminiscent of some late-90s Death Metal album. It goes without saying that a dirty guitar sound with heavy bass makes for a good album. In terms of sound there is a noticeable improvement from Carnage Euphoria. The wall of trebly distortion that made the album impossible to listen to with poor quality speakers/earphones is not a big problem here as the sound is rather thick and bass-heavy, so poor people like me, who lack good hardware can rejoice.
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