I have reviewed Connecticut’s Vomit Forth’s prior releases and since their debut album, Seething Malevolence, on Century Media Records, the band started to gain a lot more momentum, with tours and such.  However, they have not crossed the threshold to reach the heights of labelmates Frozen Soul and Sanguisugabogg.

However, that could all change with Terrified of God.  Outside of original members/vocalist Kane Gelaznik and Ricky Brayall – Guitars, the rest of Vomit Forth are new members on this sophomore album.  So with pretty much a new band, one would expect many changes.  The band was previously known for their east coast brand of death metal brutality which also included a lot of slams and shit.  For the most part, the only real tie-in to the last album is the length of this album, which at 27 minutes, is shorter than its predecessor.

Terrified of God, in some respects, sounds like a brand new band, since the band has adopted a heavy deathcore influence.  Since I love deathcore, I am actually on board with this.  The overly bludgeoning, at times, overly processed sounding production, is also evident here.

“Victim Impact Statement” opens things immediately and the Deathcore impact is all over this with Kane changing his vocals quite a bit than his previous guttural delivery.  He has the dual, higher-pitched screamo vocals and then the mid-range guttural style.  The music has the deathcore slams in abundance, however, there is a lot of blasting on this too.  The band ushers in classic pinch harmonics to bring in that 90’s East Coast death metal vibe still.

It’s over before you can blink and “Sacred Apple” jumps out of the starting gates with the blasting and the slam at the 24-second part is pretty fucking ruthless and it gets slower even!  The pinch harmonic slow down is wild, then right into the blasting.  The song hits a massive groove at the end with harmonics and gets even slower again.  It’s brutal.

“Negative Penance” is a tune the band made a video for.  I like the isolated bass guitar moment in the beginning, right into chaotic vocals and blasting all over the place.  The bass guitar part comes in again signifying a slam and at the 50-second mark – Boom-yet another tune that I am sure will be in their live set going forward.  The slam after the blast at the 1.36 mark is devastating and there are a lot of killer pinch harmonics afterwards.  Damn, this album kills thus far, right?

At 3.12 “Fear of Retaliation” is the longest song.  Massive pinch harmonics and crushing rhythm moments are happening.  The slowdown at the 1.30 mark will have all fist fighting going on in the pits.  It’s a bludgeoning moment with the bass guitar also taking center stage during this song.  Excellent vocals and guttural moments too are involved.

Shout out to the new Vomit Forth members Luke Zeitler – Drums, Bailey Olinger -Guitars, and Jett Stotts – Bass.  The new blood has transformed the band into a deathcore powerhouse.  The band could have been looking for a change-up since the North East area of the US is overcrowded with brutal slam death metal acts.  Vomit Forth, ushering in Deathcore as their main sound helps them stand out a bit more.  The production on this album is pretty darn loud and clear.

This is a really heavy album with tons of slamtastic moments.

Enough of my blathering – get Terrified of God now.  Vomit Forth brings the pain, although in a newer direction, this slays.

[Visit the band's website]

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