Helping the World to See

Do you like drums that dominate every aspect of the music and are mixed so badly that they overpower even the vocals? Vehemence does. And that's about all this album is good for, because that's pretty much all there is. There's so many mallcore idiots drooling over this band (possibly because of their relation to the infinitely-shittier Abigail Williams), and a depressing number of people with good taste doing the exact same that I was actually expecting non-first-wave death metal to have done something worthwhile for once. But no, reality reared its ugly head as it often does, and what we have here is just another cookie-cutter done-to-death metal album with next to no redeeming features.

Let's face it - since the early 90s, almost nothing new has come from the death metal scene (Augury, The Project Hate), and almost as rare are the scattered releases that are not original, but good nonetheless (Bloodbath, Kataklysm). Vehemence's attempts at revitalizing (read: cashing in on) a comatose genre are nothing new, nor are they worth more than half a listen. The music is packed full of more tremolo picking than an Immortal album, minus the originality, and with more blastbeats than anyone over the age of 15 wants to hear in a dozen albums - they just don't stop. And when you're not dealing with the near-perpetual overdose of double bass shenanigans, you're treated to the aforementioned ceaseless drumming, which is nothing less than 2384238x louder than it should be. I'm not kidding.

Which is really sad, because Vehemence's dual vocalists really have some potential if they could find some decent musicians, songwriters, a good label, and a goal of something other than to sound as accessible as possible. The lead vocalist sounds just like every other USDM vocalist these days, which is to say as much like Chris Barnes as he can. The backing vocals are impressive though - very haunting, very hateful, and just surprisingly pleasing to the ears. Unfortunately, Adam Cody (who I assume is the backing vocalist)'s appearances are few and far between on Helping The World To See, and the man has since left this disaster of a band, thereby assuring that all future releases will make this one seem like a masterpiece by comparison. Not a huge loss, though - it's not like he was more than slightly audible over the fucking drums.

As I am unable to stress enough - please do not expect anything even remotely original from this album. Cliché, idiotic song titles with lyrics to match run rampant, such as "Kill for God", "Darkness Is Comfort", and "You Don't Have to Be Afraid Anymore" - brilliant and original, oh yes. The sole exception is the final track, "Her Beautiful Eyes", which is a truly amusing song with more balls than I thought this band had. Aside from that, though, the CD is laden with stupid, childishly anti-religious lyrics that would do Corey Taylor proud.

The way the tracks sound so similar to one another with only the subtlest variation has become something of an art for USDM bands in the past 17 years or so, and Vehemence truly are masters of this. Expect to hear the same two riffs picked throughout the duration of an entire song, replaced by two or three (usually) slightly different ones for the next, before those are again replaced by more obnoxious downtuned guitars...from two tracks ago. For the entire album. I'm not kidding.

The only upside to half-assed guitarwork Vehemence's Helping The World To See is the whopping one interesting solo in the fifth track, "You Don't Have to Be Afraid Anymore" - which they then proceed to repeat from the halfway point in the song all the way to the end.

The purpose of this album, I believe, is to show off their drummer, who, going by his lack of speed, general ability, and originality, I can only assume is one of the band member's preteen children. By turning the volume of the drums up by 300%, they obviously thought listeners would be wowed into submission by the sheer power of them - and going by the other reviews this band has been getting, they have succeeded. Which is truly impressive, considering the music and the highlighted drums are abysmal, rehashed filth at best.

For having the balls to put out yet another run-of-the-mill USDM album in a market that's been saturated with shit that sounds exactly like this for almost two decades now, Vehemence really are "helping the world to see" that you don't need to be good, or talented, or original to sell lots of albums - you just need to be signed to a major record label and tour with shitty Hot Topic bands.

Good job Vehemence.