ninehertz

How do you contrive to create something so wild, adventurous and ever changing as Vntrve? Beaten to Death have form in terms of eclecticism but this is all over the place even for them. And how to approach writing about an album with 13 songs and as many different styles?

Before we even get to those, there’s the song titles that raise a smile – Satan Spawn, The K Pop Demon, Fear of Being Included or My Dying Little Pony just some of the ridiculousness on display in this regard. And the lyrics, which, when decipherable, often are mocking (the “Respect!” attached to the groove riff of Scroll On, Homeboy seems to parody Pantera) or just absurd (the “Battle vest rise!” metal call to war on Fångad I en Battle Vest).

Beaten to Death have always played around with their sounds, from an oddball grind base often impersonating any number of other genres or sometimes bands, other times going off completely on their own into crazed new worlds. The first track here sounds like System of a Down. The second is grind while the third, Electrocuted by the Sky could be emo-crust, before turning into a semi-industrial grindcore that is part Pig Destroyer and part old Fear Factory. There are more genre twists in its 136 seconds than most bands manage in their lifetimes.

There are death metal turns, combined with tech-grind madness on occasion. A saxophone appears a couple of times, adding to the noise and chaos, bringing a Candiria comparison, I hear a croaky black metal vocal on one track and on another there’s a sludge/grind combo that has me reminiscing about Soilent Green. There’s hardcore running through the most common element of grind. And then there’s a xylophone or some such that brings it all to a close. It has an experimental fire at its heart for every second, one which burns bright and which you cannot take your eyes and ears away from.

It’s impossible to even capture, consider and write about everything going on in here. More than any other album, you’ll need to listen to this to believe it. You won’t regret it – this is oddball music, it is unhinged… but it is also extremely fun and utterly brilliant.