Vore – Maleficus / 2005 Frozen Solid / 8 Tracks / http://www.vore.org / Reviewed 16 March 2006

Few bands actually make it to the ten year mark, and Vore blasted past that mark in 2004. The music that Vore puts forth has been refined by time; there is still a brutality to their music that cannot be lessened. The production level is solid enough to let the band play without hindering them in any way, but it seems fairly cold in the sense that it does not accord anything in the way of benefits for the band. What Vore seems to do best on “Maleficus” is create a solid sound by continually repeating riffs without changing too terribly much throughout their tracks.

Enough is changed, however, to really allow for Vore to make interesting metal tracks in songs like “Threshold of Empowerment”. It is during the aforementioned “Threshold of Empowerment” that the band adds a few more tools to their arsenal, most noticeably the double bass that makes its entrance here. The extended length of “Threshold of Empowerment” accords Vore with enough time to really make their composition full; one will be astounded at the guitar solos that find their way into the ending of this track. “Legion of Martyrs” uses a slightly more middle-Eastern type of sound to really keep things interested; the hardness associated with the band does not dissipate. Vore takes a completely different approach with “Ashes”, which is an instrumental and much more nuanced track that seems to be more influenced by progressive metal than anything.

The band restarts things with “Wrath Wrought Ruin”, which another track that links together high degrees of cohesion with a gruff brand of metal that does not let up. The style of vocals that dominates “Maleficus” are the screamed-out style that do not approach Cookie Monster status as much as they navigate between a normally sung style and the other pole of Cookie Monster. This album is truly for those fans of metal; those fans of the rebranded and rehashed brand of metal-based emo need not pick up a copy. This means that there are not the singles present in most “hardcore” albums, and the entirety of “Maleficus” works at the same high level. There are not the dips and weak tracks present in newer “metal” albums; Vore has been around the scene for long enough to really cut all the crap and come out with an album like “Maleficus”. Vore is a metal band for metal fans.

Top Tracks: Threshold of Empowerment, Maleficus

Rating: 6.4/10

[JMcQ]