Hailing from Hertfordshire, on the northern shore of Londontown England, VEXED have arrived with their debut album Culling Culture. Modern metal incarnate, taking a heavily djent influenced style of brutal deathcore, with clean melodic passages (and an absence of bree’s), VEXED have taken most of modern metal’s usual tropes and collectively produced something fresh and exciting. If being pounded into dust is something you find exciting. I certainly do.
Opening track Ignorant quietly introduced an eerie sense of ambience for 20 seconds, before heading straight to the pounding riffing. Absolutely no messing around here. The first full track Hideous displays the djenty deathcore chops that VEXED have mastered extremely early in their career. Chunky downtuned chugging, with vocalist Megan Targett showing off a brutal set of growls. However, not one to be pigeonholed into simply the pounding heaviness, the chorus introduces a sharp dose of sinister sounding melody.
Very early on in the experiencing Culling Culture you sense the overall cohesion to the product. Shifting from brutal deathcore chugging and growling to melodic clean passages can easily sound disjointed. But VEXED manage to always carry an abundance of uneasy ambience that gels it all together skilfully. It is remarkable that this is achieved on a debut album – many established bands would trade a lung for this level of accomplishment. The sheer ferocity of some of the nu-metal esq chugging will shake pictures off your neighbours shelves 3 doors down.
A special mention has to go to Megan for her vocal work. Her guttural bellows hold up with anyone else on the scene, but the way she shifts between that and soaring cleans is remarkable. Narcissist even brings out the spitted rapping. There isn’t a single hint of inexperience in her voice, and it’s genuinely breathtaking to think how she can grow throughout her career. Her voice alone is enough to give VEXED an edge over the majority of the scene.
Penultimate track Aurora combines everything with an anthemic wrapping, showing that VEXED can write for the mainstream along with those who prefer a brutal aural beatdown. Final track Lazarus ends the album with expert precision. Slowing down the pace to accentuate the savagery, before ending with 20 seconds of uncomfortable ambience to circle back to the intro perfectly. It’s hard to express in words the level of maturity on display throughout Culling Culture.
Culling Culture manages to take all the typical aspects of modern metal, and gel it all together in inventive and creative ways to create something truly original. VEXED display an astounding variety making it extremely difficult to label them with a singe genre. The room for growth means there is no obvious ceiling for this brutal British group. Brutal, ruthless and creative, VEXED are here to put the metal masses on notice.
Score: 9/10
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