Vomit Forth – Seething Malevolence (Review)

This is the debut album from Vomit Forth, a death metal band from the US.

Vomit Forth play brutal death metal that’s punishing and unforgiving. Across a very compact and lean 29 minutes the band deal out death and carnage to all that come before them.

The music is ferocious and raw. This is not your ultra-polished modern death metal. No, this sounds like it has been brewing in the underground since 1993, and has only now been unleashed to stalk the living. This is an ancient strain of the death metal virus, but one that’s also learned a few newer lethal tricks along the way.

Seething Malevolence is brutal stuff, but is not without songwriting skills or texture. A one-dimensional blast-fest this is not. The band know the style well enough to use a range of deadly paces and riffs across the album, and they’re skilled enough so that it results in a satisfying listen.

The band’s, (mostly), old-school death metal is augmented in places by splinters of crushing hardcore, (think a band like Merauder), allowing for some thick riffs to be vomited forth, (ahem), as the songs progress. There’s also a feral grindcore aspect that makes itself felt in places, recalling a mix of early Exhumed and Brutal Truth. Combine all of this with influences from bands like Dying Fetus, Internal Bleeding, and Skinless, and you’d have a very compelling slab of ugliness even if it weren’t for the unexpected addition of some modern noise elements. Yes, not content with sounding authentically old-school, Vomit Forth also occasionally dabble in the sort of Pig Destroyer/Full of Hell sonic extremism that adds just that extra layer of harsh depth to the music.

Seething Malevolence is a welcome breathe of reeking, foul air. The band’s music is filthy and nasty, and very enjoyable to listen to. If you appreciate the sort of death metal that saw the light of day in the 90s, yet also want a bit of a contemporary flavour thrown in, then this is for you.

Highly recommended.