ALBUM REVIEW: Legend – Vanum
Featuring members of lauded acts such as ASH BORER and RUIN LUST among their ranks, VANUM are one of the many hidden gems within the US’ vibrant black metal underground. In a scene that is positively saturated with excellent acts, it’s oftentimes extremely hard to establish a following and niche when vying for an audience’s attention alongside multiple world class bands as peers, but this excellent four-piece, initially based out of Santa Fe, have managed to leave a lasting, sizeable impression with their blend of black metal and classic heavy metal influences. Their first two albums, along with the 2017 EP Burning Arrow, expertly coupled epic musicianship with a hard and ferocious edge, while their third, Legend, ups the ante on both the bestial and bombastic sides of their sound with brilliant and diverse results.
Adversary is an excellent way to start the record, with slick guitar hooks and ominous percussion setting the tone before launching headlong into a far more epic sound, with impressive musicianship, authoritative drums and harsh, bellowing vocals that carve through the mix and punctuate the anthemic heavy metal inspired music on display. The imaginative leads are where much of this song’s appeal lies however, with some fantastically intricate dancing sections that keep this interesting throughout, drawing the listener in immediately.
The Gateway And The Key takes the heavy meets black metal formula of the opener and applies a more aggressive and focused edge to it. The guitars and drums in particular adopt faster tempos and a slightly more jarring approach, which matches up perfectly with the bellicose roar of the vocals in a way that the first track didn’t quite manage to achieve. The cleaner tone of the song’s final minutes works well, serving as a change of pace that makes for a more diverse sound as well as shifting the overall tone of the music to a far more grandiose one. Frozen In Vile Illumination sees the music lurch into more overtly black metal territories, with coarse rhythm guitars with a rawer production clashing with the cavernous drum hooks and slick leads, once again pushing the musicianship into a more rabid and feral style whilst retaining the underlying atmosphere.
Legend develops the speed-driven and ominous sound of the last track even further, with the thunderous drumming and brooding, melody-tinged guitar work crafting an incredibly expansive sound without losing any of the energy or catchiness of earlier tracks. This song features some of the most impressive lead guitar work on the album, which serves as a great contrast to the dense, throaty quality of the gutturals extremely well, whilst not clashing too starkly. It’s a brilliantly powerful yet bombastic offering that sets the listener up for the album’s closing track Beneath The Pillars Of Earth And Air really well.
This final monolithic track is easily the album’s most eclectic, drawing heavily from a variety of influences, most notably death-doom, with the slower, melancholic approach of the riffs matching up extremely well with the rest of the music. The subtle ambience that lingers in the background, courtesy of some minimalist keyboards, allows the epic side of the band’s music to shine through even when the music is perhaps at its most bleak. A short, spartan interlude as the song reaches its climactic moments works incredibly well and adds to the dramatic sound before jumping back into a repetitive melodic black metal motif that eventually closes the album.
Being a brilliant blend of black, heavy and doom metal, there’s very little to find fault with in this album on a musical front. There’s lots of inspired and incredibly polished guitar work especially on here, with the tight rhythms and subtle atmospheric flourishes further establishing VANUM‘s songwriting talent. The coarseness of vocals does at points contrast a little too jarringly with the more epic bent of the music, and there are points where the slightly harsher production likewise doesn’t lend itself to the slicker, grandiose nature of the musicianship, but it’s hard not to get drawn in by what the band have crafted with Legend. Since the release of their debut album, this band have have gone from strength to strength, improving and developing their immersive sound with each subsequent record, and this album doesn’t buck that trend, standing as arguably their most impressive and eclectic so far.
Rating: 8/10
Legend is out now via Profound Lore Records (North America / Rest Of World) and Eisenwald (Europe).
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