Vesicarum
Place of Anarchy

Isn’t One Eyed Toad a funny name for a record label? Pretty imaginative as well, perhaps much the opposite of what you can say about the band I review now. Vesicarum looks death metal, and they sound as they look. The British trio gave us the debut a while ago, and I have finally gotten around to listen to and write about it.

They have enlisted some cool guests for this debut, like Demonstealer from the great band Demonic Resurrection, a band that certainly don’t sound like everything else. Looking at this one gives the sense of a very generic death metal release, the look of the album, the logo, everything is pretty typical of the death metal genre and the imagination is limited to the name of the record label. But there is one song that breaks with clear vocals for the most parts, and a bit more dynamics than it would appear can be heard here and there. The variation and production are better than average as well, but don’t believe that this is anything but a stylewise pretty typical death metal release.

It is always a challenge to rate albums that doesn’t reimagine or bring new stuff to the table, and that isn’t outstanding at the same time. You could go for the lower ratings pointing out that it is completely unnecessary to release something that isn’t better or different. But it could also be considered to be too good to just dismiss, and it is that way with this album. It probably has enough to merit a slight interest, like the eighth track Through the Darkest Days that breaks off nicely and is a good and different song on the album. And the other tracks work as well, I don’t think there is anything to be negative about when it comes to this album, other than the lack of originality perhaps.

The cover gives away what you need to know, if you like the look of it, you will most likely like the sound as well.

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