Vespers Descent - Visions in Verse (2005)

 Most bands get better with time and would like to forget all about their earlier albums as soon as the new ones are written.  It is the nature of the creative process, and it is unusual to find a local band who produces a newer album that is lesser than their older material in terms of production and quality.  There are exceptions to that of course, Allegiance and Furor are just two bands who created such a blistering first CD that improving on them turned out to be impossible.  Being as "Visions in Verse" was made two years earlier than their current EP "Reality Disfunction" I had expected that it would be a step down in songwriting and recording quality, and yet to my delight I find that Vespers have suprised me again.

Vespers Decent was the first band I reviewed and the first band I am reviewing a second album for.  I guess it makes me seem like a big fan, but it really isn't like that, there is no bias here. To decide on a CD to review I listen to a bunch of them for a while to see if anything grabs me, and the moment I put this CD in the drive it gaff hooked me by the nuts and I just had to do it.  It is very simillar in style and delivery to the other two Vesper's Descent CDs, and as it seems that there is an almost constant conga line of members wandering in and out of the band, that is a miracle in itself.   The right-down-the-line melodic death metal feel that determines and dominates their sound is there in buckets, the influences of InFlames. Archenemy and all the rest ot the euro MDM bands is crawling all over the music.  To my ear this CD has less of the feel of the heavier bands of the genre like At the Gates and Agathodaimon in it that their later work shows, and yet somehow it sounds just as good. 

The generic and the commonplace gives me the shits generally, I love metal soaked in rage and experimental in structure.  So how is it that Vesper's Descent CDs somehow manage to be so enjoyable to me? 

It has to be the actual skill of the band that hooks me, because again they just have all the chops out on display.  The guitars have that same melody driven energy and that precise execution delivered at breakneck speed, but capable of suddenly changing to clean passages, open chords or machine gun sections.   Always interesting and occasional suprising, the guitars and bass are ultra tight with the drums and each other even when they are churning around like a sackfull of otters, and when they go their seperate ways it sounds planned and executed rather than random.  The sound is once again that heavy and yet compressed distortion that encompasses both the aggression and melody in equal doses, and as if that isn't enough, the lead breaks are about as good as anything I have heard anywhere.

The vocals are the same gutteral roar as on all the other Vesper's recordings, minimal variation in delivery and no truly discernable back up vocals.  It should be boring and monotonous but the tone and style suit what the rest of the band is doing remarkably well, they give it a heaviness that the melodic nature of the music can really use.  There are moments of interest even then, like the vocals at the beginning of "Cardinal Red" that are so muted to be almost spoken word, and the strangely echoey "Plains of Azhure Light", a masterpiece of a song by all involved.  I find myself missing the catchy choruses that bands of the genre are known for, but you can't have everything.

But again, it is the drums that is the the thing that lifts "Visions in Verse" up and above so many other local recordings.  How is it that Vesper's Descent is able to consistantly get such high calibre drummers?  Ben is the drummer on the "Reality Disfunction" EP and it is his finest work, but on this CD it is Mark Boeijen on the skins and he is at the top of his game too, his finest work to date in my opinion.  It is remarkable how simillar the two of them sound with Vespers, when in their other bands they sound so different and - all all brutal honesty - not nearly as good as they do in Vespers Descent.  Possibly the music is inducive to brilliant drumming?  Well for whatever the reason, Mark is in full flight here, feet and hands are flying and he is without a bad choice of skin or cymbal or any other flaw I can pick.  The delivery is neither too drum heavy or not interesting enough, he just locks in with the guys and just brings it all together in such a way as to make the music reach 100% of its potential.   To find a particular moment to point at as an example is hard, but "A quantum Prayer" , "All that Remains" and "The Cleansing" all have moments in which I particularly enjoyed.

The album finishes with a cover of "This Mortal Coil" off the amazing "Heartwork" album by Carcass, which is remarkable in itself for the audacity to attempt a cover of such a song, particularly when it is played note for note rather than reworked.   Heartwork is a devastating CD but the low mix makes it a little hard to distinguish every note, and the Vesper's sound gives it a new definition and energy.  I prefer the original of course, but what a great song to put on a CD as a trbute.

In listening to this CD I realise that a band does not have to be breaking new ground to be awesome, they can stand on the shoulders of the masters and re-invent their genres their own way, but to get away with it they have to do it really, really well.  With 51 minutes of brilliant musicianship, I believe that on "Visions in Verse" Vesper's Descent pulls that off awesomely. 

A must have CD for any Perth Metal fan.

Review by Jez.