VEIN is back.
Created in the United States, the band led by Marcus « Death Fiend » Frattura (all instruments/vocals, Blessed Offal, PanzerBastard…) released a demo in 2013, then the silence. In 2022, the project comes back to life with the announcement of Blood Oaths, its first full-length, by Eternal Death.
We start the session with Total Vascular Collapse and its sampled voice closely followed by its eerie echo, then after two minutes a simple but effective rhythmic of a mixture between Black and Death Metal comes to disturb the atmosphere. Barely audible ghostly voices join the catchy mix which hosts some leads and strange effects, then the introduction of Malign Blood Oath takes over with more massive riffs, which let the morbid Old School influences express themselves while offering a filthy basis to possessed screams. The Black Eye of Eibon follows with a more straightforward rhythmic and a more raw but also more audible vocals, always accompanied by this strange cavernous effect as well as by sampled voices, then the dissonant rhythmic guides us right into the short Banishment of Blood. Very oppressive, the track wastes no time and strikes us with its thick and hazy riffs before letting sampled voice introduce us to L.S.D. with some unhealthy laughters, but also repeated and disturbing noises, which probably represent the auditory effect of this substance. Once this sound experience is over, Sangre Libertad offers us a short moment of respite before releasing all the this dissonant and extremely aggressive Black/Death’s strength. But the track is very short, and Warlocks Witches and Demons takes over with a heavy and throbbing sound accompanied by all kinds of growls and screams which end up melting into a massive chaos, leaving Bloodstained Symmetry, the last track, to offer us a last fix of dissonance. The rhythmic will sometimes explode to let the effective Old School roots welcome crazy leads and muffled vocal parts, then voices will guide us until the end of the album.
If Black Metal is for you synonymous of oppression and strange sounds, VEIN is the band you need. Blood Oaths is clearly anchored in a rather Old School dissonant and raw style, but it is permanently accompanied by voices and echoes, making it… original.
60/100