Vampyroteuthis Infernalis

I really love those groups who release their albums by themselves, in a very limited number and give no further details about them. They add to the mystery and make me feel like the old, cult Black Metal days. This exact feeling I received when I accidentally bumped into Vampyroteuthis Infernalis. There is no further information about them, just that they released their first full length album on the 8th of November of 2022 in bandcamp and in a limited to 50 copies cassette format. So, the self titled album contains two huge tracks of about twenty two and twenty three minutes. Starting from the cover, this is a really good example of how you can create a beautiful cover which can describe your music and build up the atmosphere, with a simple idea and execution. You can see a kraken moving into the vast, dark sea, in black and white colors and a film noise – damage effect on top of it, to give a more atmospheric, old-fashioned and eerie feeling.

Moving on to the music part of this album, this album offers a journey into black emptiness, positioning the listener into a vast, dark scenery, floating around with no specific route to follow, other times in panic, other times very calm. The guitars are harsh and violent, even chaotic sometimes, giving that feeling of being inside a vortex, whereas the keyboards are melodic and atmospheric, making the atmosphere dark and so thick, almost impenetrable. The first band that came to my mind was Darkspace, however Vampyroteuthis Infernalis is not just that. They share some common ground with Darkspace, but they introduce other elements in their music too, such as the nice keyboards or some heavy – thrash touches to the riffs. The structure of the tracks is not too strict, having a lot of chaotic, fast parts separated by slower passages, atmospheric, ambient – like parts or some more melodic ones. In general, the structure is showing some kind of fluidity and randomness, such as the vast universe or the deepest abyss, that they picture so well.

Regarding the performance, the band has done a good job for every instrument. The guitars and keyboards are the instruments that play the most important role in the compositions and their performance is passionate and expressive, creating the scenery and the feelings very accurately. The drums are quite noisy but they have nice, minimal lines and steady, violent and powerful performance. The vocals are harsh whispers in the background following the flow of the music. The production is low fi, very harsh, almost primitive, giving to the recording that fuzzy, dirty darkness that it adds to the atmosphere but takes some quality from the instruments. I think a more balanced sound between harsh and clean style would be more appropriate for their final result. There are no lyrics in the digital version that I have, so I have no clue of what they talk about or the language they sing in.

Generally, I believe this album is a very nice first release in a style that could easily become tedious and boring. I think that if the band keeps working on their compositions the way they already do and try to correct some problems with the sound, we should expect a lot from them in the future. In conclusion, I liked this album and I am sure that every fan of Darkspace and of the whole space drowning style, will appreciate it a lot.