Vanum - Ageless Fire

After another year of incredible curation from Profound Lore last year, I was excited to finally hear some new music from one of the most reliable labels in the metal underground right now. They announced in late 2018 the impending release of the second album from the super-studio-pair that comprises Vanum, a duo I had not heard before then, but the vibrant and fiery artwork gracing their sophomore release (and their association with a label I trust well) was enough to pique my interest in their upcoming album. Apparently the two-piece recording project expanded into a complete four-piece band for this six-track release, doubling the creative musical energy capacity and the original members’ investment in their joint project. Clocking in at just under 41 minutes, the newly bolstered group’s sophomore album is a rather average-length record for its style, and one that embodies the average of said style a little more than I was hoping it would.

Before and since Ageless Fire’s release, I had seen nothing but adoration being poured out for what was purportedly an instant U.S. black metal landmark. It’s still an early-year underground release that’s only getting about as much press as an album of its kind would ordinarily get, but from what I’ve seen, those who were looking forward to the album have been far from disappointed. I feel like I haven’t really done much dissenting on the offensive on this platform against the greater critical consensus on albums I’m not as into as said critics are, but it’s one of those things that’s kind of inevitable. And I guess this being a less-discussed album compared to, say, an Overkill record or a Mastodon record, makes standing my ground against this album a less daunting feat than it would be against the hypothetical swarm of ardent Mastodon defenders.

I suppose I should clarify that I don’t hate this album. In fact it’s leagues above much of the drivel that came out in January, not that that’s the highest bar to surmount. But what I couldn’t figure out for the life of me was what this album was doing so well that indie review blogs and even larger online publications that received advance copies were vaguely lauding. Ageless Fire is a rather straightforward modern black metal record that taps into some old-school black metal vibes (hearkening way back to Bathory’s days of Viking metal experimentation and integration). While that older style was still at least partially dependent on well-written and unique riffs, Ageless Fire not only finds Vanum at a deficiency in creativity when it comes to the few they introduce, but also finds them oddly trying to apply modern black metal’s focus on ethereal atmosphere that arose from the subsequent wave of the style they’re emulating to a style that it evolved from. It’s a curious approach on paper at least, but it differs greatly in practice from its theoretical origins.

Of the six tracks comprising the album, the shorter opening and closing tracks are there mainly for the ceremonial purpose of doing just that for the album, entry and exit. The intro piece, “War”, at least builds up rather nicely and through a cinematic blend of tremolo-picked progressions, pounding tom drum accents, and atmospheric choral backing to introduce the following track, but the minute-or-so closer, “Erebus”, which just bows the album out in a haze of stringy ambience, seems especially unnecessary. The four main cuts that make up the middle of the album, though, are of course where the album’s main problems lie.

The first fully formed song to enter in after the intro’s opening ceremony finishes, “Jaws of Rapture”, is one of the stronger cuts on the album. The song builds itself up on a similarly atmospheric blend of melodic tremolo picking and subtle choir vocals with some decent floor tom accents that I wish were just mixed a little louder and made to be more thunderous than they are on here (which can be said for the entire album, in fact). The short, sweet solo in the middle of the song is pretty nicely integrated as well.

The third and longest song, “Eternity”, loses the album’s footing quickly with its attempt at some kind of quick, upbeat blackgaze that seems to channel the title track of Deafheaven’s Sunbather in a less unique and engaging fashion. Despite its awkwardness and strange stylistic choices, it’s not the worst form of Deafheaven mimicry I’ve ever heard, it’s just kind of frustratingly unoriginal.

The similarly lengthy following song, “Under the Banner of Death”, features this basic-as-fuck tremolo-picking progression that thankfully does lead into more confident, choir-supported territory, but it’s the kind of motif that sounds like it would have been scrapped from or better-groomed on Bathory’s Hammerheart. This is also another one of the songs that tries to add some punch to some sections of the song by bringing in some potent floor tom accents, but is impeded in doing so by the stifling of the drum mixing.

The title track is a particularly nondescript example of the band’s rather one-note approach to modernizing first-wave black metal through bland tremolo-picked guitar melodies, even when it gets to its more climactic final moments, it reaches its higher peaks by aping a lot of what Kerry McCoy did on Sunbather.

I know a lot of people loved this album, but for all the effort I’ve put into trying to find the appeal in it, I can’t really see what it is they seem to see in Ageless Fire. Everything on here in its combination feels like a messy hodge podge of old and new black metal with not a lot of certainty on how to reconcile them, much less execute either in a unique enough manner. Again, it’s not a terrible, disastrous album like the new Papa Roach and Arch Enemy albums were, or even the new disappointing Soilwork album was. I just don’t think it’s quite the momentous occasion for American black metal its adorers are making it out to be. It’s a serviceable black metal album for those seeking some atmosphere with a bit of that old norse spirit thrown in, but it’s not something that really makes the most of what influences it brings to the table, and it ends up too easily overshadowed by the forefathers of the styles it tries to merge.

Not what the critics say/10