In the grand scheme of things, Vasaeleth are still a pretty new band. The first proper introduction to the Georgia/Colorado duo came courtesy of a 2009 EP-- our loyalty was won halfway through the savage opener “Figures of Chained Spirits”. That they bounced to Profound Lore the following year to release their debut full-length, Crypt-Born and Tethered to Ruin, hasn’t hurt, nor have two split releases with perfectly-suited conspirators Vorum and Cruciamentum. Crypt-Born was a sleeper hit with the black/death elite; four years later, it seemed high time for O.A. and Antinom to release a new full-length. Anticipation ballooned when Profound Lore announced its arrival, but instead of the long-playing overdose of death metal one may have expected, we’ve been blindsided with a short shock of an EP.
All Uproarious Darkness blasts by in under 20 minutes, with nary a song stretching beyond the four-minute mark. In a subgenre characterized by excess-- more distortion, more blastbeats, more riffs, more violence-- Vasaeleth have delivered a lethal death strike in the amount of time it takes lesser bands to hit their first Incantation-biting groove. That influence is there, of course; the crumbling road to Golgotha has nearly buckled under the past few years’ heavy traffic, but out of the many au current old-school death metal bands, Vasaeleth are one of the few that truly get it right. Think Teitanblood or Grave Miasma instead of the armies of less stimulating clones. O.A. infuses his meaty chunks of vintage death metal riffage with a putrid black atmosphere, summoning a bestial effect akin to an updated version of Demoncy’s best material or even Impiety’s earlier work. The Archgoat and Incantation linchpins noted by the label are in there, too, but Vasaeleth are too smart to simply lift riffs from their own record collections.
They remain coldly focused, whether they’re hammering away with blunt force on the title track or allowing the frenzied mauling on “Black Curse Upheld” to decay into a painfully slow middle passage. The production remains appealingly murky, embracing the swirling chaos within and allowing only a faint glimpse into its inner workings. Milton would have wept had “Paradise Reconsecrated” ever crossed his consciousness-- the Fall of Man sounds like a stroll through Sumerian paradise compared to the aural barbarity on display here. When O.A. crashes down into a heaving torpor at 1:27, again at 2:19, and at the song’s end, it feels like the sky has blackened and fallen. It’s the kind of heaviness that sinks into your gut, drags your neck down, and overtakes you entirely. “Fathomless Wells of Ruin” embraces a similar dynamic, peppering its slow dives with harmonic squeals and a hideous hissed gurgle torn from O.A.’s throat. Vasaeleth are excellent at blasting through their manic paces, but they’re deadliest when they slow it down, ramp up the intensity, and just fucking punish.
“Throat of the Grey Watcher” is the album’s strongest track, exemplifying each of Vasaeleth’s best habits and tying it all together into a neat display of malice and control. All Uproarious Darkness could have felt too short, but such is Vasaeleth’s mastery of their craft that they knew just when to stop, and just how hard to strike. There's no room for fluff or ostentation here, no fat to be trimmed or bloated sections to be padded out. This band is above such petty tricks. Here, there is only darkness, desolation, and damn good songwriting.
