While we’re definitely a fan of crunchy and smooth dynamics within a song, it’s also makes for a good sonic balance using the approach from one song to the next, something that UK post-metal-sludge/doom outfit Vandampire do well on their debut full-length Hope Scars. This eight-track features plenty of melancholy drenched sludge riffs that exist comfortably betwixt and between placid, clean melodicism and buzzy noise passages. The quartet tip the cap to Kyuss one moment, Radiohead the next and find a comfortable spot in the metal bins at the record store not far from Neurosis. You get the picture, now give it a listen.
Hope Scars was was recorded at the Bookhouse and Hackney Road Studios, London in 2023 and 2024. It was produced by Jack Ashley and mastered by Magnus Lindberg (Cult Of Luna). It’s set for release on cassette and digitally via Ripcord Records on October 31. Get yours here.
The band summed up Hope Scars thusly:
“Hope Scars is us throwing everything we’ve got into one record: heavy, messy, emotional. It sounds like what it feels like to fall apart and rebuild. We conceived this record as a kind of audio journey from city to country, tracing our own transitions through major life changes. It shifts naturally between sprawling, atmospheric passages and moments of pure, punishing intensity, all revolving, of course, around the riff.”
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