It is a nice metallic document. It is also probably the most enjoyable metallic document of 2023. There’s just a few key causes for this. Before everything, the riffs actually are implausible. Second, there is a freewheeling levity to the compositions. It is as if the band gathered and had an epic brainstorming session saying: “Okay that sounds good, that’ll be a track. And that. And that. And that too.” Third, whereas it is a enjoyable and tongue-in-cheek, there may be zero stuck-up ironic snark within the supply. Simply as they’re genuinely dedicated to high quality flicks, VHS has real reverence for his or her sonic subject material. The subject material right here being sword-and-sorcery movies from the Nineteen Seventies and 80s.
“Cleave ‘Em and Go away ‘Em” really begins off in a extra punk-rock course, nearly a pop-punk one, if it weren’t for the gutteral vocals. From there, Quest For The Mighty Riff is sort of a continuous marathon of thrash and demise metallic excellence. “Dagoth Should Die” completely slays, “Illias and His Magic Bow” feels like a military’s rallying name, and “Hail King Arthur” combines every thing nice about VHS into one monitor. I really like that they selected samples from the implausible 1981 traditional Excalibur. Actually, I believe I have to rewatch the movie now and put this album on as background.
And this will get to why VHS is such an awesome band. As they confirmed with final 12 months’s Giallo-industrial combo Deep Gashes and Lengthy Lashes, VHS each understands the kitschy over-the-top nature of the artwork they love, however they do not use this to patronize the viewers or topic us to distanced, art-school-dropout-style posturing. (“Ha ha, metallic is hilarious, is not it, my dude???”)
The opposite cause the album succeeds is the picture-perfect manufacturing that propels the crunchy guitar tones, rousing drums and bass traces, and the ever-present gurglings of Mike the Merauder. The expertise on show right here by way of musicianship and songwriting is lethal critical.
It is an intensely fulfilling and heavy pay attention. Significantly, if you cannot rage to “Adventurers, Heroes, Brothers” you are most likely simply actually lame. Or you do not have a pulse. There are humorous moments, positive, however you are laughing with the metallic and films, not AT them.
OK, I lied, there may be one doable exception. When you occur to get the entire version, you will obtain the band’s baffling cowl of Bryan Adams‘ “Every thing I Do (I Do it For You).” To be honest, it is no extra absurd than the track’s use within the 1991 movie, Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves. It’s very bonkers, however I salute the band’s panache in going for it.
So, anybody up for film evening?
