Album Review: Vaulting – Nucleus
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Band: Vaulting (Germany) Album: Nucleus (2011) Genre: Deathcore / Grindcore A couple of months ago we covered a song by a German band named Vaulting. I characterized the song as having ”plenty of fast-paced leads, hooks and sharp edges”. A few weeks later the band released its debut record Nucleus, containing thirteen brand new songs of pretty much the same general inclination. If it wasn’t for a bunch of them being rather different. |
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So Nucleus is a debut according to drummer Sebastian Gathof, so it’s kinda strange how Encyclopaedia Metallum lists 2008’s Epilog as a full-length too. Because taking a closer look at it, it seems more like an EP, with only 18 odd minutes of playing time. Yet there are eight songs which is more than you’d expect on a normal EP. The key is in the Grindcorian length of songs: one of them is only four seconds.
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This Grindcore-like song duration is something the band stuck with. But Vaulting’s material is a bit of a hybrid of a hybrid. Primarily it’s Deathcore, the hybrid form between Death Metal and Grindcore / Hardcore. But then it’s got ambient piano parts right alongside of it. It’s kinda like combining sex with watching TV. It can work together if you play it right, but it isn’t the combination you would have picked as most logical. I’ll leave you to decide which, Deathcore or piano stuff, is the sex and which is the TV.
In theory Vaulting have a pretty good concept in hand then and in a way, at times, it does work. But the issue with this record is the total and utter lack of logic in pretty much all guitar leads and the result is as if you’re listening to chaos in a box. For example, you get this introductory track which is all calm and sweet and soothing, but does build up a certain tension. So far, so good. Then track 2, 80 Gy kicks off and for the remaining three songs it’s just as if you’re listening to just the one if you don’t pay full attention. It’s not until track 5, Permafrost, which is piano over bass, that you realize you’ve just listened to three songs of noise.
Now I’m not quite sure what the band’s own logic is with taking this approach. I believe there are two options: 1) they’re just improvising and it indeed doesn’t make all that much sense, or 2) Martin and Matthias are actually miraculously technical guitarists and they just like to play this way. I honestly can’t make out which it is, but I can imagine how playing like this could be fun if you’ve got full control over it. It’s just that for a listener it’s not really pleasant listening to. You can’t pull this apart and make sense of it anymore. And believe me, I’ve tried. For a whole bunch of hours.
I am being overly generalist here. There are of course a couple of tracks or moments in which things do make sense. I’m naming firstly the two piano songs that break the record into three parts and furthermore songs like Arktis Winter, They Always Return, Concrete & Nosebleed and Behind, a (mostly) slower and much more controlled song (until shit hits the fan just past the halfway marker) that is the album’s closer. As a general rule, the slower-paced songs / moments make a lot more sense.
Moreover, it’s clear from these songs that the band actually does know how to put together proper songs in which each member can show off his cunning abilities on his instrument. Sebastian’s drums are faster than fuck and feel full and rich, not raw and scrawny as is common in Grindcore. I am noticing a recurrence of certain patterns and fill styles here and there, but nothing you would notice as disturbing. And also Julien Heinrich, who’s responsible for bass, knows full well what he’s doing and he lays down value-adding fills throughout the record. Felix Kisseler’s vocals are a brutal mix of a deep bellow and a snarling bark. Kinda like the in between of Martin van Drunen (Pestilence, Asphyx, Hail of Bullets), Jukka Pelkonen (Omnium Gatherum) and something properly brutal.
And this to me is a pity. Because I know Vaulting could’ve put together something so much more intrinsic with their skills. So, what then do I make of this? Honestly, I don’t think I’ll be listening to this often again. It’s just too much, in any case for me, despite that I usually don’t terribly mind a bit of ostentation. But I do recognize a bit of skill on top of all the speed and I can imagine fans of the really freaky totally digging this. Eleven short blasts and two piano tracks to help get your blood pressure down in between. Chaos in a box. Metal for the advanced.
My Grade: 6.0/10
Buy this when:
- it can’t be crazy enough for you
- it can’t be fast enough for you
- it can’t be chaotic enough for you
Posted on January 3rd, 2012 at 12:28 pm
Can’t agree more. I found their previous stuff quite interesting, but this is just weird.
Oh, and the bandcamp page says the album is 35 minutes long?
Posted on January 3rd, 2012 at 12:46 pm
Yeah that’s correct. I was referring to the earlier EP when I said 18 minutes.
Posted on January 3rd, 2012 at 1:42 pm
Hi Niek,
thanks alot for the review!! It’s interesting to read, because from my point of view all the songs and crazy/chaotic structures make perfect sense. But i’m aware that it’s hard to get through for the most listeners. We’ve just developed our stuff on and on and then you get something like this. But we do believe that the sense of nucleus is accessible for the most people and we also tried to make this easier with simpler structured songs like biorobot for example. Maybe one should’nt try to understand the whole thing, but feel it.
One thing is incorrect in your review. Our actual bassist is Julien Heinrich. Encyclopaedia Metallum got that wrong too somehow.
best regards,
Matthias
Posted on January 3rd, 2012 at 2:00 pm
Hi Matthias,
First off, thanks a lot for you feedback! And secondly apologies for mis-crediting Julien, EM is actually the source I took it from. Kinda stupid I know. Anyway, I’ve fixed it straight away.
As for structures / chaos, one thing I tried to highlight is the difference between he who plays and he who listens. So it will make more sense to you as the musician, because you’ve designed it. But yeah, I am the type of listener that tries to pull a song apart to its bones and then understand it. I get a kick out of it when I notice two instruments are really reinforcing each other by doing nifty stuff at the same time, or swapping each other’s lines or something. So the experience will definitely differ per listener as well.
The thing is that I do dig a couple of songs, the one I mentioned in the review. I’m wondering now, are these now songs that are actually different to you as creators as well or is this just a random thing? I mean did someone else write them? Did it take more or less time to write them? Where they written from a different basis / structure? What do you think?
Posted on January 3rd, 2012 at 10:01 pm
Hey Niek,
you’re welcome! I really enjoy this discussion!
It’s hard to explain why the songs you mentioned seem to stand out, because we don’t have a formula or pattern for writing songs. I wrote like 90% of the songs on nucleus. So for my part i can say that I always follow a explicit mood or feeling when I write the riffs. Sometimes I (day)dream a riff and try to realise it later. Also the different types of music I listen to inspire me alot during the writing process. But every song has a fluid feeling to me. Most of the songs were going through a massive rearrangement in the bandpractice until everyone was satisfied.
In ‘Concrete & Nosebleed’ the first half was written by Martin. He has a very own style of playing and riffing, so his stuff always differs in a refreshing way.
‘They Always Return’ was rearranged alot and is inspired by my passion for doom/post metal like Rune.
‘Arktis Winter’ was written in fall 2009 when the weather here was mostly very dark and nasty. And i listened to Dog Fashion Disco alot during that time. The song was a lot simpler in the first versions, but a year later it felt already old, so i put some new leads and a technical part in the middle.
‘Behind’ is the latest song i wrote actually and is mainly influenced by kalibas and decrepit birth. It’s also my favorite song on nucleus because it’s so well balanced between melodic stuff, technical frenzy and teethgrinding riffs.
I also think that “behind” shows the way in which we are evolving.
Posted on January 3rd, 2012 at 10:18 pm
My honest opinion is that that’s the right direction to move in. To me, Behind seemed to have a lot more meaning to it. More like it’s telling a story or something. Still, that’s only one opinion and whatever you do thé most important thing should always be to make fun playing. ‘Spielfreude’!
It’s funny how you can actually hear how Concrete & Nosebleed’s intro is different. If that’s his typical style, his is more Grindcore-ish. Yours is more a frenzy. They mix well.
Decrepit Birth must be my favorite band in what I’d call “Brutal Death”. They masterfully mix absolute brutality with melody and complexities without losing sight of the song’s overal feel. They’re a good influence to have!