{"id":97437,"date":"2022-11-04T00:00:13","date_gmt":"2022-11-04T00:00:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/?p=97437"},"modified":"2023-01-05T11:52:54","modified_gmt":"2023-01-05T11:52:54","slug":"album-review-vaultwraith-decomposing-spells","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/album-review-vaultwraith-decomposing-spells\/","title":{"rendered":"VAULTWRAITH – Decomposing Spells (2022) | Album \/ EP Reviews @ Metal Forces Magazine"},"content":{"rendered":"

VAULTWRAITH
Decomposing Spells<\/strong><\/span>
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\nHells Headbangers \/ Vicious Witch (2022)<\/span>
Rating: 8\/10<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

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Esteban Walpurgis is one of those vocalists you will either love or hate, but his peculiar squawks are certainly interesting as they shift from black metal-styled snaps to creepy slurred commands. I guess this US act has always intrigued me throughout their previous brace of studio albums and Decomposing Spells<\/em> is the sort of record I can linger within due to its horror-obsessed attitude.<\/p>\n

If you like heavy metal like King Diamond then you\u2019ll probably enjoy the occult-driven aesthetics of this ghoulish band who are more than happy to provide haunting orchestration, sinister and spooky trudges and unorthodox dynamics. This is evidenced on the shapeshifting \u2018Of Skeletons And Metal\u2019 whereby you become entranced by both doom and traditional metal, but there are also shades of black metal too.<\/p>\n

Opener \u2018Wax Cylinder Apparition\u2019 trudges with a mid-80s Euro chug; it\u2019s effective throwback metal that\u2019s as musty as an old crypt as the drums clatter to the thunderous riffs. It\u2019s a great way to open the opus as Esteban begins to snarl out another story, even bringing a deathlier growl to his style\u2026 and that\u2019s how the album progresses. \u2018The Devil\u2019s Dish Served Cold\u2019 begins with an eerie, mystical plod and Esteban really does test his vocal chords this time with his scratchy gurgle.<\/p>\n

Elsewhere \u2018Full Circle Possession\u2019 brims with the same ghoulish gleam as another retro traipse enters the graveyard and tramples on the corpses that desperately attempt to escape from their murky holes. Meanwhile, \u2018The Sinister Scythe\u2019 has a more molten vim to its angles, almost briskly hissing with vim and metallic vigour, although \u2018Carnivorous Coven\u2019 is arguably the album\u2019s zestiest track, beginning with a busy piece of axe work before resorting to that nefarious trudging again.<\/p>\n

This is certainly atmospheric heavy metal, with the likes of \u2018Church Burned\u2019 and \u2018Hearse Hauntress\u2019 gleefully galloping through the graves like nimble apparitions enticing you into their foggy shroud. The latter is one hell of a doomy march and epitomises the odd yet compelling details of this devilish band. As I say, if you don\u2019t mind the vocal gurgles then you\u2019re in for a trick and a treat to the Vaultwraith beat.<\/p>\n

Neil Arnold<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

VAULTWRAITHDecomposing Spells Hells Headbangers \/ Vicious Witch (2022)Rating: 8\/10 Esteban Walpurgis is one of those vocalists you will either love or hate, but his peculiar squawks are certainly interesting as they shift from black metal-styled snaps to creepy slurred commands. I guess this US act has always intrigued me throughout their previous brace of studio […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[24,5174],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-97437","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-album-ep-reviews","category-vaultwraith"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/97437","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=97437"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/97437\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":97441,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/97437\/revisions\/97441"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=97437"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=97437"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=97437"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}