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artist: Evulse
title: Call of the Void
year: 2018
genre: Death Metal
type: Demo
label: Transylvanian Recordings
language: English
rel. date: 2018-10-22
source: WEB/MP3
quality: CBR 320kbps / 44.1 kHz / Joint Stereo
runtime: 00:09:55
size: 22.8 MiB / 4 tracks
rip date: 2026-06-29
source url: https://open.qobuz.com/album/t59kpy1qnmc1b
tracklist:
01. Hypochondria 2:00
02. Hideous Mound 1:45
03. Call of the Void 3:44
04. Agoraphobia 2:26
release notes:
The basics? A five piece Death Metal band from America's well renowned
San Francisco Bay Area. Anyone not familiar with that area yet? You know,
Metallica, Exodus, Testament, Vio-Lence etc, not to mention the general
area of SF containing such Death Metal brilliance as Vastum (who you must
hear if you consider yourself a fan of Death at all), and of course
Possessed (Death/Thrash if you will, but definitely a huge part of the
beginning of the whole DM movement), and many others without a doubt, and
yes if I've missed your favourite band then feel free to be upset,
matters not a thing to me, I'm not writing a fucking book here. I'm here
to discuss Evulse, and whether they are worthy or not of being in the
company of such excellence with their debut, 2018's "Call of the Void".
"Disgusting Death Metal" is how they (or some PR guy) has called them on
their Bandcamp page, and for most, that would be enough to draw them in.
Mayhap it was the case with me also, as I am a sucker for anything
remotely Death Metal related, especially if it turns out to be really
good! They also contain members of Mortuous, Swamp Witch, and Augurs (yet
again, on their BC page, so not hard to find out), which to some will
mean a lot, and to others not a fucking thing. As always, I prefer the
music to tell me the tale, so it was by listening to it that you will now
find out how good, bad, or indifferent it is.
Opener "Hypochondria" may make you feel a little ill with how fast it
opens, a smothering mass of chaotic distortion, gurgling monstrous vocals
and flat out hate. A nice bit of guitar solo chucked in for good measure
amongst the insanity of the rhythm section, and just as you start liking
the idea, it's over. A whopping 1.59 minutes, well, that was quick.
Second track "Hideous Mound" is, for all intents and purposes, quite
hideous, also containing the gurgling screams of some demented mad man to
the tune of dudes flogging the shite out of their respective instruments,
and then too, it is gone. Just sat down, grabbed a fucking beer, and now
we are halfway through the debut. Christ, it takes me longer to shit, but
all is not yet lost.
Track number three, "Call of the Void" may well be the saviour, and so it
begins with a bit of a raw almost Black Metal sounding guitar part, and
just when you may expect ice to be forming on your speakers, then the
heaviness kicks in, and kick in it does. Now we are talking. This is what
we want, and the boys deliver a track that could be almost be (or is to
me) Death/Doom in nature for the most part, with some good old fashioned
chuggery to boot in the riff section. My biggest problem here, is that
either the vocals are so buried in the mix that I cannot make them out at
all, or something has gone wrong with the production so that it all just
sounds like "Aaaarrgghh" and "Uuuurgh" and maybe also "Oooohhhh". Don't
get me wrong here, I love the sounds that bands like Atavisma, Ataraxy
and even Kaabalh are working with right now, and yes they are not
strictly Death Metal to any degree, but even if all of the aforementioned
still sound like your vomit had bred with your internal waste and come
back to haunt you via the 'S' bend of your toilet, they still have a tad
more clarity to them.
All that remains is the closing track "Agoraphobia". Another bolter, this
one slaps you around the eardrums with more unadulterated chaos before
settling into a groove of sorts, and a groove that still contains the
barking of an incoherent madman. Maybe that's the way it's meant to sound
and I am missing the point. Some of the riffery contained within is just
pure crunchy goodness, but it all too fleeting to leave a decent
impression for mine. I really wanted to like this a lot more than I do.
Yes, on a level of bat shit craziness this will work for some, and for
those with very little attention span who just wanna drop names and say
they are into the latest underground shit it may also work, but for me it
just doesn't cut the mustard so to speak. There is a great deal of
promise here, but if they release another it needs to be more of a
statement of where they are going and not just what seems to me like four
tracks thrown out unto the masses to test our readiness. Yes Evulse, you
have both the ability, and the talent, and I do believe the direction, so
please make the next release a bit longer, a bit more solid, and make us
believe. I so want to, we are ready.