Helping the World to See

Vehemence, though powerful, does not immediately snag its audience. After this album's run its course, I don't remember epic solos, lovely vocals, or other staples of classic, great albums. Instead, there is a much more subtle, lasting vibe that carries this album through your subconcious, so that when you're flipping through the cd case next time you don't find yourself trying to remember its sound, since you're already mentally headbanging to the riffs.

This album doesn't lack skill, however. The ever-noted Kill For God is indeed a perfect example of great melody, and most other songs each have a couple great riffs as well that mix a pretty vicious mood to a pleasant but not overstated melody. The drummer does a beautiful job of carrying the low end of this album by both setting a great pace and supplementing the guitar riffs. Vocally, this album is underrated. Though Nathan doesn't have the greatest range, the timbre to his growl is excellent, and that layered with the higher growls (almost shrieks at times) is definately worthwile.

True, though, there are flaws. The vocals are mostly intelligable so it is easy to note that some of these lyrics are lacking. But, it's death metal, so what? The riffs are great, the songs are well written.

What brings this album down in the end is that its not mature enough to be exceptional. Vehemence's sound, though it is often called straightforward, is pretty unique- subtle riff structure and varied melodies all tying in together . Vehemence has a great idea, and they've gotten better each time they've offered at it, but they have yet to master it. Given, that objective is a difficult one to achieve, and there are moments on the album where you wish they'd have spent more time working the little kinks out, but overall it is very enjoyable.

Give this album some time, come back to it, listen to a song about 5 times in a row, and then you'll catch on to its low end focus.