Forever Underground

It's not my username by any chance.

The music of Vital Remains takes a big step forward on this album, after two fantastic releases that placed a greater value on atmosphere and creative song structure, Forever Underground is still to this day the band's most technical album, although it doesn't display the frenetic madness that would later make them more relevant, the musicianship is appreciated in both the band members and the songs, allowing them to remain creative in their songwriting and at the same time show an over the top level in terms of performance. With these two strengths, a balance is found that would never be seen again in the band's discography.

The main reason why there is this gigantic progress on instrumental level is because of the inclusion of Dave Suzuki, he would quickly take a very important role in songwriting and of course in performance as he is the most skilled musician, even though there are many traces of the style previously seen in Vital Remains, in all the songs there is a strong search to create a dense and nightmarish atmosphere, if it wasn't for "Farewell to the Messiah" there wouldn't be a second of rest and even though the compositions are long, some will say that they are artificially lengthened due to the repetition of segments but I firmly believe that this aspect is necessary for the kind of music that the album tries to transmit, also the fact that the compositions are longer allows them to explore and show different facets making the songs varied and at the same time memorable, if they tried to do all that in a shorter composition it would be too chaotic.

Even with the aforementioned characteristics of the original sound of Vital Remains that prevail, there are many changes that will remain as indispensable trademarks for the following productions, although the speed is more measured than in these later albums, it increases significantly due to the rhythms marked by Dave Suzuki's drums, the same one that brings for the first time an acoustic guitar solo, being this an insgnia of the group to this day. It is in "I Am God" where we find this facet for the first time and curiously it is the song where we find more elements of the old Vital Remains, mainly because of the use of keyboards, showing a balance between the new and the old style.

But despite all that I have said about the kind of atmospheric and dense compositions, there is still room for displays of instrumental skill, from the aforementioned acoustic guitar solo to pure shred guitar solos to a drum solo that works as a build up to the finale of the first song being for me the highlight of the album, I fervently believe that this performance on drums by Dave Suzuki is the best he has ever done, it is not the fastest he had ever performed but it is undoubtedly the most technical, the way in which he executes a double bass incredibly marked and of incredible complexity together with the use of the fillers achieve an apotheosic moment of stasis that elevates this work from outstanding to an absolute masterpiece.And it is these kind of moments that give that final push that makes this album go from memorable to one of the peaks of American death metal, the solidity of the compositions, the intensity, the speed, all perfectly arranged and executed so finally these small displays of instrumental talent are placed as the icing on the cake, simply perfect.

I find it hard not to get overwhelmed simply because of how much I like this album, but the sound that is shown in these 40 minutes is of an incredible and unrepeatable quality, and I say unrepeatable because this album was a bridge to a change of style, it didn't specialize in a specific aspect like the others in the discography and that makes it unique. Also the success of the later style of the band meant that any chance of making something like this again was diminished, ending as the title suggests, underground.... forever.

I am forever underground

Rewritten 14 December 2021