Aural Aggravation

Ripcord Records – 31st October 2025

Christopher Nosnibor

Every year this happens. My social media and every website, every mag, every paper is publishing its end of years round-ups. There’s the annual circular at work sent around a few friends for best / worst gigs of the year, most-listened to albums… and here I am, on 19th December, with at least one more gig to attend – which could as easily be a contender for the best, or the worst, or most surprising gig, or whatever – sifting through my inbox and discovering albums released in October still. Albums that might blow me away, at that.

How on earth did I miss an album pitched as ‘For fans of: Old Man Gloom, Cult of Luna, Kowloon Walled City, Big Business, Neurosis, Russian Circles, Torche, Pelican, Isis, Hey Colossus’? I mean, this is an instant grab! This is emblematic of a fairly modern issue, in that there is too much music. It’s not a complaint. But it is a fact that even the most devoted fan of even the most niche genre won’t have the vaguest hope of keeping up with all of the year’s releases in that field. It’s a double-edged sword: listeners are spoiled for choice, and it’s a boon time. There is always something new, and likely of an extremely high standard, whatever you’re after. If you’re a band, how do you get heard, when there are more albums released each week now than there was in the whole of 1988 or whenever? Being good, even being fucking awesome isn’t going to cut it. And hiring a PR – even a good one – doesn’t mean your release won’t languish in reviewers’ inboxes for a nearly three months – especially when reviewers are likely on the lookout for covering acts that will bring their blog hits: in other words, acts that already have some traction, moderate coverage… and so on.

Holy fuck. This… this is what some may call ‘the shit’. And it’s heavy. At this juncture, it’s perhaps unpacking the concept of ‘heavy’: the general perception of ‘heavy’ music seems to focus on distortion, overdrive, sounds associated broadly with metal. But weight and distortion are not necessarily synonymous.

Vandampire is a post-metal band from South West England who have been going since 2018, and they’ve very much learned the power of dynamic, and the strength of detail. They do hard-hitting riffs, but show a clear appreciation of the impact not only of clean, but of clang. Cited influences Neurosis and Kowloon Walled City are prime exponents of creating crushing weight and brutal, bludgeoning force with minimal distortion, and Vandampire have very much embraced their stylistic approach.

The title track is exemplary. It’s low-tempo, hard-crushing, doom-weight, and starts out menacing but relatively quiet, bar the thunderous percussion… and then it hits. Hard. It’s not outright metal, but it hits like a slow punch to the gut as the cacophony rages. And it’s LOUD and it’s raging, but it’s not all that big on distortion. I find the clean or moderately overdriven guitar sound in a heavy context hits hard in many respects, and the arrival of ‘Ultralow’ is nausea-inducing. This is loud and heavy on every level, with chugging guitar and bass that grinds slow and dingy it’s almost enough to make you shit your pants. But in its finale, it offers near-transcendence, a magnificent and majestic soaring climax that is nothing short of skyward. ‘Ultralow’ hits as a bludgeoning blast of fury, and the sinewy guitars, grinding bass and blankly nihilistic vocal leans heavily on the style and sound of Kowloon Walled City. I should be annoyed by this level of stylistic appropriation, but then they lunge into a low, grinding riff and… it’s clear they’ve got something as the song disappears intro a squall of feedback. ‘A Promise Main’ rages equally hard, blending elements of post-rock and post-metal, with soaring guitars and an obliterative rhythm section, not to mention some gut-churning chug and howling vocals to forge a monster cut that, in places, invites positive comparisons to Amenra.

When they do pair it back as on ‘In Ascension’, the vibes border on expansive ambience, with some rich textures and rippling melodic elements which contrast with the majority of the album. ‘I Will Miss Everything I Forgot’ is an achingly evocative acoustic-led track which sounds like nothing else on the album and demonstrates their range extends far beyond anguish and rage.

It’s clear that they’ve made optimal use of the recently-added second guitarist here. Hope Scars is richly textured, and there’s some magical musical interplay on display here. They bring all of this together on the colossal twelve-minute closer, ‘Let Ruin End Here’, a piece which is nothing short of devastating in impact, while at the same time offering intimations of a spiritual journey. And it is ALL the riff. It’s nothing short of monumental.

I don’t do end-of-year lists for numerous reasons, and if I did, I’d have missed this. This would have likely been a strong top twenty contender if I was going to make a list though: and since I’ve posted over three hundred reviews this year, that speaks of its quality. Yeah: this is one killer album, alright.

AA

AA