Band's List Death Metal Vorum Poisoned Void

When Vorum released Grim Death Awaits EP in 2009 on Woodcut Records, the now (in)famous New Wave of Old-School Death Metal was already in its prime, but even the short duration of the EP couldn’t prevent Death Metal fans from not noticing the astounding potential of the Finns. Finns who, even though they recreated the murky sound of their elders to a certain extent, Demigod coming first to mind, had a certain knack for Swedish bands and especially Entombed. You could feel Left Hand Path had left its mark with its characteristic tremolo riffing infused with a somehow punkish energy but also Clandestine with its less coarse production, improved songwriting and incredible leads.

This EP was followed a year later by a 2-track split EP with Vasaeleth and then a hiatus of three years. And as I kept coming back to the band’s earlier material, I couldn’t help but feel it was about damn time they got to release a proper debut. Poisoned Void is here at last and released under the banner of Dark Descent Records, a label that underwent the rapid evolution from promising to near incredible. I guess the association between those two potentialities, band and label, just made perfect sense.

The result also does make perfect sense. After three years of waiting, hopes were rather high and the reenactment of Grim Death Awaits would have been considered a deception. It’s not that each and every band must strive to release material that is more original, more intense, more more than the previous one, especially in this musical genre, it’s just that when you smell potential you can only hope it will be developed, enhanced with the next record. The one issue with Grim Death Awaits, and an issue which is shared by many younger bands reconstructing the sound from the early 90s is lack of identity. Sure, almost everything has already been said but basically most NWOSDM bands are either Incantation, Autopsy, Immolation and/or Swedeath copycats.

Poisoned Void shows a more mature side of Vorum. It still has all the aforementioned influences but they’ve been digested, accepted and used. They became a tool for Vorum where before, well… Vorum were the tool of their influences. As a result, Poisoned Void feels like an old-school Death Metal record instead of just sounding like one. It’s a record that could have well been released in 1991 and you wouldn’t be able to tell the difference. The difference between recreating settings at the studio (which almost everyone can do and does) and feeling and living the music.
It also has a lot more testosterone, as a friend would put it, than its predecessor. From the opening track, Impetuous Fires, you know the band means business. Poisoned Void relentlessly delivers brutal slabs of Death Metal where Grim Death Awaits would use more breaks. I can only conjecture that the members got to be better musicians in the meantime and just threw most gimmicks away to deliver Death Metal with a capital D. Only the intro of Thriving Darkness and the last eponymous track (but it’s also the longest one at over 7 minutes ) revert to “slower” rhythms.

But what really makes Vorum stand out among their peers is the splendid use of guitar leads. Adding emotion on top of the brutality rather than diluting it with slower parts is one great feat which is proof of these guys’ improved musicianship and songwriting. Try picturing Ignivomous’ brutality minus their linearity, Dead Congregation’s gut-wrenching compositions with Hellid and Cederlund on the guitars and the image would still be a long way from the achievement that Poisoned Void is.

Though the method may be different, Vorum’s debut is just as entertaining and rewarding as Necrovation’s sophomore was last year. Two bands that not only grasped the essence of Death Metal but became Death Metal itself where others are still trying to figure it out… Impressive, majestic, and a ton of other superlatives can be used to describe this fantastic record. Get it now.