Vulvodynia - Mob Justice review
Band: | Vulvodynia |
Album: | Mob Justice |
Release date: | June 2019 |
01. Feast
02. Mob Justice
03. Blood Diamond
04. Born Into Filth [feat Alex Taylor]
05. Famine
06. Echoes Of The Motherland
07. Nyaope [feat Martin Matousek]
08. Reclaim The Crown Part I: The Burning Kingdom [feat Trevor Strnad]
09. Reclaim The Crown Part II: Risen From Ash
10. Cultural Misogyny
You know the world is small when South Africa is getting in on the deathcore action.
Vulvodynia are relative newcomers, having already dropped some EPs and two full-lengths prior to this one despite only forming a handful of years ago. Call it prejudice, but these are considerable red flags based on past experience, as the deathcore scene in particular is renowned for bands pumping and dumping uninspired, derivative releases to keep the momentum going for their seemingly attention-deficit fanbase. There's almost an underlying need to produce new material as quickly as possible in order to remain relevant, regardless of the content's quality. This isn't to say deathcore as a whole lacks anything other metal genres don't; it just seems more prevalent specifically within the deathcore scene.
Now for the first half of Mob Justice, I was quick to lump them in with that crowd. The title track alone is embarrassing enough to dissuade anyone who isn't a high school gym rat from venturing any further, with its slow-chug bro-hug slamming breakdown towards the end, but there's a surprising and welcome shift if you're durable enough to reach "Famine" -- the first foray into actual musicianship and decent songwriting on the album. This is when the guitars are allowed to display some technicality and melody, which is something the first half of the album is sorely missing. Up until that break in style, it just comes across as one of those bands trying to out-brutalize their peers and coming up massively short.
The guest vocalists add another layer of interest as the album nears its end, and the songwriting really starts to round itself out. They actually sound like complete tracks now instead of a couple minutes of mindless slam chugging, but it still never reaches a point of brilliance, never mind excellence. The brief guitar solos are fun but never fleshed out, the drums take a back seat for almost the entire album with a few exceptions when they're allowed to breathe a bit in the mix, and the vocals range from bro-cringe tough guy to decent death metal growls. It's a disjointed album without much going on to keep your interest, but there are moments where it seems like these guys could actually write a solid, consistently engaging album if they focused on expanding their technical prowess and solo efforts, dropping the macho vibe, and letting the drummer's voice be heard when it comes to production.
This is a difficult album to rate due to its inconsistency and jarring pros and cons, but if you're on the lookout for some new deathcore truer to the genre's origins instead of the contemporary style that's shifted into more serious, mature, and technically driven territory, then Vulvodynia have you covered. Mob Justice doesn't seem to know what it wants to be, but there's something there for fans of all forms of deathcore and even slam death metal with its overabundance of chugging riffs.
| Written on 17.09.2019 by I'm total pro; that's what I'm here for. |
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