Vircolac - Veneration

Vircolac is a death metal band from Dublin, Ireland who formed in 2013.  Their latest album, "Veneration" is their second full-length album, in addition to also having two demos and an EP.  So what do I think of this album?

I. Think. This. Album. Is. Insane. End of review.

Just kidding. This isn't the rend of the review. But I wasn't kidding about the insanity of this album. While it definitely isn't progressive or technical, it is definitely imaginative in how it incorporates and shifts through many styles. The soundtrack to going insane? Yep.

Seriously though, Vircolac’s “Veneration” is an album that wears many hats and is constantly changing said hats. Or should that be spikes? Or is that only a blackened thing? Cammo shorts it is, then.

Seriously (again) "Veneration” is an album that kept me guessing the entire 36 minute runtime. I never knew what was around the musical corner from one moment to the next. Some might prefer a more focused approach. That's fine but there are plenty of death metal bands that provide this. This particular one provides spastic insanity and that's just fine. 

As I said, this is death metal. But its also melodic, crusty, doomy, and sometime downright theatrical.

“The Lament (I Am Calling You),” opens the album and gives absolutely no indication of what will happen afterwards. This song is dominated by clean vocals and gentle atmospheric music. What am I listening to here? Some hipsters bandcamp demo?

Then the title track hits with a massive sludge doom death riff that then growls its way into an existence of pure thrashing speed.  The drums are a huge part of the song and steer it well. Groove is splattered throughout the nasty riffs as the song jumps between brutality and Doomed death.

“Our Burden of Stone on Bone,” begins with quiet but dark tones. The skies darken and a crawling riff arrives as a surprisingly emotive solo crawls out of the much.

The vocals are sick as hell and go right alongside the massive, muddy riffs. Seemingly random bursts of old school death and groove laden rot connect the song together. Then it slows down to light textures, creating a somewhat atmospheric backdrop that thrives on liminal spaces.

The album ends in glorious style with the massive final song “She is Calling Me (I. War II. Death III. Redemption).” The beginning is a little disturbing with the shrieks.  The bass absolutely slaps and the feel of the song switches between a hardcore punk/crust dirge and straight up crushing death metal.

This album is a pleasant surprise to my ears and I love how adventurous it is with its risks while still being an unrelenting death metal machine. This is death metal how it was always meant to be played: raw, dangerous, unsettling, and impossible to ignore.