Style: progressive death metal, death metal (harsh vocals)
Recommended for fans of: Blood Incantation, Tomb Mold, Morbid Angel, Death
Country: United States-CA
Release date: 16 August 2024
One of the best parts of this gig is the deep dive of the genres we cover: I find new, blossoming artists with loads of potential almost daily. In 2022, for instance, wine-country (Santa Rosa) boys Vile Rites released their first EP, The Ageless. It was a bit rough around the edges to be sure, but the band’s hungry energy had me quite excited for future endeavors if they pushed their sound further from the boundaries of thrash and death metal. A couple years later, we’re treated to the awaited debut Senescence of Vile Rites, enrobed in a gorgeous cephalopod. With artwork like that and all of their talent, Senescence is in prime position to have Vile Rites make their splash in the scene.
Their sound has changed little in the previous couple years, still a progressive take on thrash-infused death metal (Viles Rites’s experience includes stints in Vektor and Laceration as far as their thrash credentials). Senescence irons out the rougher edges of The Ageless, Greg Wilkinson’s (Autopsy) production sounding lush and full, packing a particular punchiness for the drums and bass for an emphasized rhythm section redolent of the ocean’s murky depths à la the cover art. Vile Rites has also ironed out their songwriting in those couple years, and while imperfect, the tracks all build in satisfying ways. “Transcendent Putrefaction” builds from subtle field recordings into a mammoth riff with roiling ambience into a stormy wave of blackened thrashiness until it suddenly cuts away into rounds of theremin and synth. Aerin Johnson slowly brings it all back to the surface starting with ominous post-rock drumming and then crashing down with blasts with the force of a tidal wave. Lengthy closer “Banished to Solitude (Adrift on the Infinite Waves)”—though not quite as lengthy as its track title—also balances its different passages with deftness, transitioning between tempestuousness and slower, post-ier sections like the tide ebbing and flowing. “Banished to Solitude” is a killer closer and shows the band firing at their best.
That the four tracks leading up to “Transcendent Putrefaction” are not so progressive nor engaging is a shame. Vile Rites still incorporate movement, especially with Alex Militich’s guitar solos, but the tracks may as well be completely stagnant since their take on OSDM is rather bland. The riffs are hulking but slow, and when they do reach for a faster pace, it’s to an old school thrashiness that just doesn’t work for the band. They need to operate at their proggiest lest they sound like every other mid-tier OSDM band of which there are hundreds. They still sound professional and competent in the non-interesting first half of the album, but it’s a tepid snoozefest aside from Militich throwing in his late 80s and early 90s death metal solo impressions—be sure to check out 2:40 in opener “Only Silence Follows” for the best of those, though, because he performs some fun whammy bar shenanigans.
Just as Militich’s guitar playing makes for several early album highlights, his vocals nearly equally detract. He has a decent enough raspy growl, but it’s nowhere near as engaging as even the blander riffs on the album, and on top of that, he rarely changes it up beyond his mid-range grunts. The entire front half of the album would fare far better if there were increased variety, the vocals just a microcosm of that problem. The couple cutesy synth breaks do little for spicing up the sound, and Senescence becomes a slog after a short while.
Instead of making ripples in the prog metal world, I fear Vile Rites may silently sink into the depths until and unless they figure out they’re far more successful as a progressive metal band and not a death metal one. The compositions are clearly more appealing when they twist through all the turns of the final, lengthier tracks, and the riffs themselves suit the band far more when they lean into their skill set rather than playing it safe with cliched death metal headbangers. Senescence promises more is in store for the group if they turn toward a proggier style: these guys can release the kraken, the sophomore is the time to do it.
Recommended tracks: Transcendent Putrefaction, Banished to Solitude (Adrift on the Infinite Waves)
You may also like: Ænigmatum, Cosmic Putrefaction, Chthe’Illist, Vertebrae Atlantis, Gutvoid
Final verdict: 6/10
Related links: Bandcamp | Spotify | Facebook | Instagram | Metal-Archives page
Label: Carbonized Records – Bandcamp | Facebook | Official Website
Vile Rites is:
Alex Militich – guitars/vocals
Aerin Johnson – drums
Stephen Coon – bass/synth
0 Comments