Vastum: Orificial Purge (2019)

Over the last several years there has been a large movement of bands recapturing the sound and fury of early forms of death metal, whether that be the Florida sound, the Swedish sound, or the New York sound.  One of the best of these bands has been Vastum, a Bay Area band filled with members of a vast array of other bands, including the decidedly non-death metal Hammers of Misfortune.  They really made an impact with 2013's Patricidal Lust, a monster of an album that made it into my Top 10 list that year.

This album is a bit different than the previous releases by Vastum.  It does not quite have the same raw savagery as previous releases, though their brand of Immolation-meets-Autopsy death metal is still largely present.  The vocals still have the same characteristic venom, but the songs themselves are a bit more atmospheric.  This has largely been interpreted by a number of reviewers as the band spinning their wheels.  While it is true that Vastum seems to have developed a formula to follow on their albums (similar number of tracks and total runtime), each release has been sufficiently different as to be worth listening to over and over again.

This may not be quite as aggressive as Vastum's earlier material, but that does not make it bad.  It is probably not going to be the first album I go to when I want to listen to Vastum, but it is a damn good release in its own right.  It is yet another example of a great death metal album from last year.