In His Blood [LP Pool Of Blood Vinyl]

Vacuous - In His Blood [LP Pool Of Blood Vinyl]

MetalThe UKs VACUOUS make their Relapse Records debut with their new album, In His Blood. An overdose of Death Metal, In His Blood is a compelling mix of blazing speeds, chilling atmospherics, and angular riffing that bring the band into their own unique space. Weve talked about having different influences, and it felt like a bit of a dare to push things further, guitarist Michael Brodsky says. Back in death metals formative days, with bands like Autopsy, Obituary, Incantation, none of those bands sounded like each other: they were just pushing their collective influences together to the extreme. I think were still doing the same thing, just from the point of view of people who grew up in the 2000s. From the roaring, quick-fire intensity of the title track to the haunting atmospherics of Hunger and the cinematic rumbles of Contraband, with In His Blood VACUOUS push the limits of what listeners might expect from Death Metal. We have some surprising influences on this album, Michael says, explaining that the track Hunger came out of imagining what it would sound like if The Cure made a Death Metal song. The spontaneity and attitude of punk and hardcore are also an influence, and Michael namechecks Converge - less for their sound, and more for their mindset and experimental nature. Theyre inspiring for how they meld different styles together, but it still falls loosely within hardcore and metal, he says. Under the overarching idea of violence and voyeurism, in the albums lyrics Jo Chen explores a number of topics including horror films, serial killers, school shootings, toxic masculinity, and the Global North and South divide. The song Contraband is about the 39 Vietnamese migrants who were suffocated in a lorry trying to come over to England, Jo says. It was such a tragedy, but it was blink and you miss it; news today and gone tomorrow. I was born in London but my family are from Malaysia, which is historically a poor country, he continues. Theres such a juxtaposition when I go back there. Here in the West, generally, people are often so comfortable. The only access that some people have to extreme poverty and violence is online. Going forward, VACUOUS want to keep pushing boundaries, being spontaneous, and taking risks. We want to have a discography where every album is distinct, Jo says. We dont want to feel like were repeating ourselves. You think of a band like Carcass, who do this and its super fun to listen to. We just want to keep trying something different.