Valkyrian Music

Vecordious

Anthropogenic Deterioration

Released 1st December 2017

Black Metal/ Blackened Death Metal

Self-Released

‘Anthropogenic Deterioration’ is the debut album from the Norwegian blackened death metal band Vecordious. The band has been around since 2009. Some of my favorite black metal bands are from Norway so I have high expectations for this…

The opening track is essentially just a dark ambient -style intro which does not really give the listener any indication of what’s to come. All is calm before the storm, then it starts… The barrage of abrasive guitar riffs, pummeling drums and ferocious shouts. Oh yes…Make no mistake, this is definitely black metal, not dark ambient. Purging marks the real start of the album and it is an aggressive beast. Vercodious’s overall take on the genre feels like it is influenced by the likes of Belphegor and perhaps to some extent the blackened death metal of early Vesania. Yet despite the aggressive stance these guys are not quite as relentless or as fast as Marduk nor is the music as technically complex as some of the other bands within the scene.

If it’s fast and angry black metal you’re after then The Lycan is the song for you. It’s easily the fastest and the most fierce-sounding track on the album and the probably the closest the band has come to reaching Marduk levels of speed and vehemence. Then there’s the bizarre, experimental dark ambient track ‘The Apparition’ sandwiched between the bombardment of guitar riffs and aggravated shouts. It’s just about long enough to give the listen a short break to take a few deep breaths before the onslaught resumes. Ready or not here they come!! Ghastly Septicity caught my attention for all the wrong reasons, mostly due to the terrible backing vocals. It’s a shame because without those it would have been a decent black metal song.

Overall, ‘ Anthropogenic Deterioration’ is a decent effort; however I think Vecordious still have some work to do in terms of developing their style. The black metal scene is very saturated and there are a lot of similar sounding bands out there. This doesn’t offer anything particularly unique.

3/5
Iza Raittila

This entry was posted on 9th December 2017 at 8:47 pm and is filed under Uncategorized with tags Black Metal, Blackened Death Metal. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.