Fuck. When was I last able to write about an extreme metal band, from my side of the Atlantic, releasing a record on Relapse? There haven’t been too many in the last 5 years or so, that’s for sure. And this is no sleight on them, but I would never have guessed the band for whom this would be true, would be a weird-ass death metal band like Vacuous. So credit to them; and more importantly to Relapse to be quite honest. Vacuous released their debut in ‘22 on the label Me Saco Un Ojo and it was, I think it’s fair to say, very good. But relatively linear in its approach to underground death metal. Not a damn thing wrong with that, for the record.

The interesting question then, is how have the band grown and evolved in the intervening couple of years? Because they certainly have. There is a noticeable, borderline profound difference in the output compared to the debut. The songs have drastically greater diversity in style and structure, they visit places that one might not expect them to and the lightness of touch (when employed) is not something I would have expected to hear, based purely off of the debut. Suffice to say, I’m delighted about this development, not least of all because when the band wants to ‘go heavy’ it’s now utterly crushing thanks to the improved dynamics. And I really mean it when I say crushing. If you play “Flesh Parade” with a good pair of headphones, it feels like it has your head in a vice. And yes, I’m aware that many people will read that and think that sounds like the worst possible auditory experience, but if you’re tapped into what good, underground death metal is trying to deliver, you’ll realise that the impact of a death metal band can be almost infinitely lessened by a lack of willingness to deviate from the rank, dingey depths of the sound that they love and are predisposed to.

The textures, and ambience that Vacuous play with across the record just leaves you feeling confident in their ability to conjure moods and unsettling backdrops. There are small manipulations of sound lower in the mix quite frequently that were I not trying to critically analyse the record, I could well have not noticed. But that’s a sign of how skilfully they’re deployed and integrated, certainly not of any lack of impact when combined with the wider sonics the band create. The audio clips from old films are used well, too. Often enough to be thematically notable, but not enough to become a gimmick or overly played-out. One doesn’t usually associated the word ‘tasteful’ with underground death metal, but I think it applies here.

Being entirely candid, I think this is an incredibly exciting step for a band who formed only five years ago to have made. It displays a greater interest in wider, dark music soundscapes, it shows a musical intellect and an ability to generate a more complex and nuanced ambience than might be entirely typical of death metal bands five years into their existence. I think this record is fucking great. Do I think that it’s the best thing they will make? Absolutely not. And that’s not based on this record as much as its based on what I genuinely believe they’ll go onto make. This might well be in my end of year list, but I’d take a bet on them featuring higher up in years to come.