ALBUM REVIEW: Nostalgic Predictions – Vermörd
Blackened death metallers VERMÖRD open their debut full-length Nostalgic Predictions with the cleverly titled Intro, which is something of cinematic opener, clearing the way very much in the vein of an old Hammer flick. We are then swiftly dropped into Dissimulation, which presents technical and fast thrash riffs accompanied by breakneck drums. It then fans out into almost proggy territory before gelling into a murky slew of melody with more than a whiff of the Norwegian second wave about it. Then it lurches into big-brain cosmic death metal stuff, then it’s off in some other direction. It’s a real melting pot of influences that seems to flit about from idea to idea without allowing them to fully develop, which sets something of the theme for the record to follow, and even in this early stage appears to be becoming its undoing.
As we move through into Festerhate, everything appears to calm down slightly. It’s not as sporadic though there is still a great deal crammed into a tight place. Grating blasts and streaks of melody intertwine with the occasional big curbstomper of a slower riff coming to presumably give some much needed relief. For a band that described themselves as producing “sinister death metal”, it’s becoming glaringly apparent that the music they produce has a distinct lack of such an atmosphere, almost like it is entirely too battering to be sinister; the stinking, rotten atmosphere of HOODED MENACE it just ain’t, unfortunately.
Blessed By Wolves is much more straightforward. It’s blackened death metal in its most traditional sense, technicality and aggression from the world of death and the icy cast to the mood from the blackened underworld. They lean into this even more on The Precipitous Malady, namely through an avalanche of ice-cold tremolo and some tremendous blastbeats. Even the vocals take an audible turn towards the darker end of the spectrum, howling and shrieking like holocaust winds. This could well be the pick of the album, as it’s short and sweet but packs a hell of a punch.
After giving the album the benefit of the doubt for its first half, by the time Dark Morning Star rolls around the cracks are really beginning to show. There isn’t really much to report on this one, it has riffs, obviously, but almost in a kind of metal-by-numbers way. It doesn’t really feel like anything in this will stick in anyone’s craw for any meaningful length of time. Admittedly, there’s a good intro riff to Realm Of The Unknown, a mid-paced two step that turns into a shuddering gallop. There’s also a moment towards the end with a slightly quieter sequence of melodic fluff that seems quite nice. Beyond that, there isn’t really anything too inspiring to be found here, which does not bode well considering we’re only just past the halfway point.
Nightstar isn’t great. The intention is presumably a grandiose, EMPEROR-esque swell of atmosphere, but what instead leaks out from the speakers is something that sounds like it is floating on the air away from a particularly naff carnival. Unlike the rest of the album however, which never lingers long enough on one idea for it to be fully developed and by extension, appreciated, Nightstar sits in its strange groove for its entire runtime and becomes nothing short of tedious by the end.
Turning to the album’s final moments, namely the closing trifecta of The Nine Circles, Cenotaph Mirari and Gates, it is highly likely that by this point the patience of the listener may well have worn thin. We have been at this now for just under an hour and the hyperactive flitting between riff, pace and even sub-genre is just coming off as confusing. Rather than blending the highly diverse set of influences VERMÖRD bring to the table, they instead are just randomly jerking from idea to idea, seemingly without any care for things like coherency or even structure.
Fair play to you if you managed to make it through the whole thing without even a mote of frustration, as the unfortunate thing about Nostalgic Predictions is the fact that the individual members of the band are so obviously brimming with talent and technical ability that the random, scattershot nature of what they have produced just comes off as frustrating, often feeling more like you are listening to a playlist VERMÖRD have curated rather than an album from a singular band. The most important thing these guys need to do in order to produce material they can truly be proud of is to learn to edit, allow ideas to run their course and simply understand that more does not always equal more. Until they get this, they will likely only keep disappointing.
Rating: 5/10
Nostalgic Predictions is out now via self-release.
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