VEHEMENCE -

VEHEMENCE - GOD WAS CREATED - METAL BLADE
Deep vocals, fast parts, slower parts, bass drums which rattle on without any power, a sixth member and a rather faint rhythm guitar sound constitute the core of Vehemence. Sadly with the notable exception of the album-opener Made For Her Jesus and The Last Fantasy Of Christ the songs go nowhere fast. The issue here, essentially, is why and how contemporary metal bands lack the intensity of older ones. Take Agent Steel's Skeptics Apocalypse, to which I was listening before reviewing God Was Created, for example. The former album being a 1986 product, it nonetheless boasts many times more speed, heaviness and intensity than a so-called death metal album anno 2002. Younger bands have to resolve this dilemma should they wish to go anywhere in the scene. To be sure, employing keyboards, powerless and clicked bass drums and unimaginative guitarring is not going to do it.
Vehemence demonstrates Kataklysm and In Flames influences riff after riff and more prominently drum beat after drum beat. The latter band's patterns can clearly be heard during the song God Was Created. The American sextet is also and more intensely reminiscent of the Phlebotomized demo, or for those not familiar with that, Phlebotomized's debut album. That's right, the band has a keyboardist which in metal is akin to the proverbial cold shower. How our Jesus-fighting and God-desecrating sextet proposes to achieve their goal using the church's instrument of choice remains undetermined. Incidentally, note song titles like the aforementioned opener, She Never Noticed Me, I Didn't Kill Her, etc. Do you note a pattern developing?

VEHEMENCE - HELPING THE WORLD TO SEE - METAL BLADE
After writing a disparaging review of the last Vehemence album it was a surprise to receive a nice e-mail from John the band's guitarist. There clearly is a nice guy in this band with an atypical behaviour.
The new Vehemence CD is better than their last one for one main reason, but still falls short of qualifying for any type of award. The American extremists have ditched their keyboards between the last and the current album and hardened the music in the process. That is a major improvement. The band's songs are either Amon Amarth-like compositions mixing heaviness with melody or full-blown deathcore slabs of power raging at the listener. Unfortunately, the production is not what it should be with the vocals and the drums alternately suffering in the mix. The band needs to shore up the production department next time, get rid of the last residual keyboard parts and come back with an album that can be unequivocally supported. - Ali "The Metallian"