Vulvodynia: A Death Metal Banquet
“Just limiting ourselves to slamming brutal death metal just wasn’t an option for this album. Because we wanted to make the best possible death metal album that we possibly could. I know that our guitarists have other side projects where they write prog-type metal and all kinds of different things. And they really shone when it came to the songwriting on those elements and having a lot of solos on the tracks. It’s like a sonic story on certain tracks – you hear the song and it just paints a whole fucking story in your head. I feel like this one is definitely pushing the boundaries when it comes to what a South African death metal record should be!” Speaking to Distorted Sound from his home in South Africa, VULVODYNIA talisman and vocalist Duncan Bentley is the epitome of affability as he spills the extra-terrestrial tea on upcoming album Praenuntius Infiniti.
Humble and softly spoken, he’s the walking, talking antithesis of the monstrous concept behind the six-piece’s fourth full-length and Unique Leader Records debut. The horrifyingly epic tale of an unending sea of carnage with a God-turned-beast devouring everything within its path, a sprawling tale of the consumption of galaxies and their inhabitants and the duality of battling deities – all played out amongst an immolating plethora of cranium-rattling death metal, vicious slams and spine-crushing breakdowns accompanied by enamel-peeling howls and bowel-cleansing gutturals.
Suffice to say it’s certainly a far cry from the gritty realities of 2019’s Mob Justice, in which the death metal exports honed-in on societal subject matter such as drug epidemics, corrupt politicians and the prolific gang violence that has long since plagued their homeland. And whilst many fans were hankering for Psychosadistic Design 2.0, the onus this time around was placed very much upon what the band themselves were looking to create for themselves.
“I know that a lot of [fans] wanted us to go with the murder and the death and the mayhem of that record, but with this one we really wanted to go for that whole theatrical vibe and be able to write an entire story of our own. Basing it on fantasy and fiction and all those kinds of cool things that don’t necessarily limit us when it comes to the storytelling,” Duncan ponders thoughtfully. “With some aspects, I do believe that it’s good to listen to the fans and what they want – but ultimately this is the album we wanted to create. And when you’re reading the lyrics, I want people to still be able to associate and relate them to their everyday lives. We tried to make it easy to digest on a song-to-song level so that nobody gets confused in terms of the timeline. People wanted the backstory of the Praenuntius character after the first EP [2015’s Finis Omnium Ignorantiam] and this is very much the finale in the story.”
Zero punches have been pulled in terms of the first handful of tracks to drop ahead of the album’s September unveiling. Harnessing blackened tech-death precision, sledgehammer riffing and orchestral flourishes, lead single The Shadowy Descent of Gaia (“it had a little bit of everything for everyone”) is akin to AVERSIONS CROWN on steroids; the Aussies should be weeping into their VB’s in humble defeat – as this South African collective have managed to fully elevate that same “Australiencore” that was very much their calling card at one stage. Modest to a fault, Bentley chuckles at the reference; the irony being that “they did influence us somewhat when it comes to that alien type deathcore stuff” along with the storytelling of THE FACELESS’ Planetary Duality. Elsewhere, Banquet of Enigmatic Horrors Parts 1 & 2 – which also spawned a double whammy of audio-visual madness via their Shaun Of The Dead-meets-Attack the Block videos – conjure the gloriously deranged sound of CATTLE DECAPITATION and WITHIN DESTRUCTION birthing a bastard lovechild while listening to Demonocracy-era JOB FOR A COWBOY. Granted, death metal can sometimes fall stagnant – bland if you will – in terms of just being about the fast and the brutal – and precious little else.
Where VULVODYNIA shine as a band rooted in this genre, is in the complexity versus creativity balance. When you listen to Praenuntius Infiniti in full, the potent fusion of brutal DM bludgeoning, grooves, that superbly intricate, almost clinical tech-death precision and the manic slams are all present and correct but there’s also – wait for it – some serious melody creeping into the mix with tracks like Whispers of Calamity and The 7 Judges highlighting the heightened theatrics. What the listener is hearing is not merely an hour-long homage to horror and sci-fi, but in fact a band’s continued maturation, as they seamlessly incorporate melodic, technical and hyper-aggressive elements into their backbone of brutal slamming death metal, to achieve what is arguably their most diverse and engaging modus vivandi to date. Are these – no pun intended – more alien elements ones that you guys have been thinking about playing with for a while now?
“Oh absolutely. And I also feel like now with our new guitarist Lwandile Prusent joining us as the sixth member, he just really needed to shine. Just limiting ourselves to slamming brutal death metal just wasn’t an option for this album. Because we wanted to make the best possible death metal album that we possibly could. I know that our guitarists have other side projects where they write prog-type metal and all kinds of different things. And they really shone when it came to the songwriting on those elements and having a lot of solos on the tracks. And with Whispers… it’s like this sonic story – you hear the song and it just paints a whole fucking story in your head. I feel like this one is definitely pushing the boundaries when it comes to what a South African death metal record should be!”
An enviable string of high-profile guest spots (Oliver Rae Aleron – ARCHSPIRE, Jon Huber – ex-PATHOLOGY/I DECLARE WAR, Matti Way, Jamie Graham – VISCERA, Jawd James – DISENTOMB) aside, incorporating the orchestral prowess of INFERI’s Malcolm Pugh would also pimp the VULVODYNIA arsenal to a brand-new level – not to mention tempt a new fanbase. Cue the obscure percussion and suddenly The Texas Chainsaw Massacre vibes are overwhelming. “Malcolm’s stuff honestly blew us away and we really want to work with him on another album. When we play it live, its probably gonna be backtracked but it’d be so cool to have someone doing those spots. Although it wouldn’t be financially viable bring in a seventh member now!” Duncan laughs heartily. “I also felt like we needed to start opening up to new fans and that’s why we looked to start incorporating these new genres. But we also don’t want sway too far off what we originally do – we didn’t want it to not be brutal. That said, I feel like it is just the beginning of what we want to do next as well!”
Gods and alien deities be damned – with Praenuntius Infiniti at their disposal, VULVODYNIA look set to be the ones to live to devour the death metal universe.
Praenuntius Infiniti is set for release on September 17th via Unique Leader Records.
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