Review Summary: One of the most disturbing, unnerving, aggressive and truly miserable albums I’ve ever heard
Vore is a small cult act from Mexico, compromising of sole musician Tzachtixz, the mastermind behind one of the most disturbing, unnerving, aggressive and truly miserable albums I’ve ever heard. Listening to this album is an incredible journey, from the light to the dark, it’s a spiritual experience you take part in across this hour long album.
Everything on this release works perfectly together, interacting to form a maelstrom of emotion. The tone on the distorted guitar is thick, meaty and creates a full sound. The guitar parts are greatly varied; ranging from classic tremolo melodies, to slow arpeggio parts classic riffs, creating a nice range across the album creating different emotional responses from the listener. Across the album the distorted guitar is mixed with beautiful, emotive clean passages, creating an incredible atmosphere that the more the listener is exposed to, the better it is, whether it’s a lone acoustic part, or blended together with the distorted passages, it’s wonderful.
The bass on this album is better than most black metal albums in that it is audible for a start! Above that, it also plays a great mixture of simple support parts and independent melodies. Drum wise, the parts are great and varied, providing many different tempos, variations and rhythms, changing frequently, sometimes providing multiple parts within one riff, they provide great support to the guitars and bass, driving the tracks forward with simple beats, double pass, blast beats according to what is required.
The last thing to address is the vocals, Tzachtixz provides some of the most tortured and demented screams I’ve ever heard; high, distorted, depressing shrieks, they really add an extra dimension to the music, topping of the depressing and haunting music beneath. You truly feel all the emotion that is behind the voice, though the lyrics are in Spanish so I couldn’t tell what was been screamed about, you can feel that the person behind is releasing all their pent up misery in a cathartic scream. On this note, according to the artist the lyrics in the album are about the process of social isolation and occult catharsis/enlightenment. The details of the story can be seen in the layout of the tape release, which features a hand drawn world entitled ‘The Inner Hell’ where each track relates to a part of the world.
This is album is a masterpiece, a varied and emotive experience, Tzachtixz has crafted a truly amazing experience for the listener, exploring many different avenues, be it slow doomy passages, fast black metal tremolo sections, or haunting acoustic breaks. Every track keeping the same emotionally charged atmosphere that penetrates the entire release. Any fan of DSBM, black metal or just extreme metal in general should definitely check this out.
Favourite tracks:
Maze of Solitude
One Hundred Blind Eyes
The Gloom Keep
