OUT NOW:
CBR154CS: VHS "For A Few Riffs More" CASSETTE + POSTER SETAll orders to date have been shipped! If you placed an order for this wild album, expect it shortly in your mailbox.Canadian death metal weirdos VHS return with their wildest mutation yet. Fusing repulsive death metal vocals and bursts of bizzaro heaviness with a pitch-perfect vision of classic Italian / “spaghetti” western film score music a la Ennio Morricone and Marcello Giombini,VHS further push their sound into unique, maniacal territory.
ORDER: https://crucialblastshop.net/album.php?ID=10093
LISTEN: https://crucialblast.bandcamp.com/album/for-a-few-riffs-more
"Morricone-style western music with death metal vocals. There’s really only one band that would even just try such a monstrous idea, let alone record ánd release it. It’s gloriously insane." - TO THE TEETH
"One of the most outstanding achievements of this experiment is how well the band captures the sensations of an actual western soundtrack—trumpets and all—if the demonic spirit of a guttural-vocal-vomit-spewing Johnny Cash possessed that soundtrack." - YOURLASTRITES.COM
CRUCIAL BLAST LABEL DESCRIPTION:
Already with a cult following in the current death metal underground, VHS (sometimes used as an acronym for Violent Homicidal Slasher, but frankly VHS is much more representative of what these guys are about) have been cranking out a steady and prolific stream of horror / exploitation movie-inspired death metal with a punky, filthy take on early gore-splattered 90's barbarity. Comin' out of Ontario, Canada, the trio wear their geekdom loud n' proud, putting out quasi-concept albums like 2023's Quest for the Mighty Riff (an ode to high fantasy and sword-and-sorcery stuff), the sci-fi obsessed Gore from Beyond the Stars (2020), and the vampire-flick tribute I Heard They Suck...Blood (2021). All of this stuff is loaded with pop-culture / video rental generation references liberally laced throughout their grunting, grinding heaviness that's oft been compared to stuff like Exhumed, Ghoul, and Mortician, with moments of pulverizing Autopsy-esque doom-death. There's always a quirky element cruising' through their music too, with some oddball style and genre shifts (sudden stoner rock grooves, hardcore punk, trippy psych flights) that give 'em a unique flavor.
But what happens when their obsession turns towards the field of classic 1960s and 1970s Italian Westerns? You get For A Few Riffs More, and it is easily the weirdest thing these guys have done so far.
Loaded up on marathon viewings of Sergio Leone, Sergio Corbucci, and Sergio Martino, these guys get deep into the arena of ultra-stylish, ultra-violent Spaghetti Westerns. The song titles and lyrics alone are chock full of Italo-Western worship, with references galore to the Django series, 1967 revenge classic Death Rides a Horse, the Lee Van Cleef starring The Grand Duel, Joaquín Romero Marchent's infamous splatter-western Cut Throats Nine, the awesome "Inspector Gadget-meets-mega-violent-gunfighter"-like Sartana series, the absolute blast of the Sabata series (again, my man Van Cleef), and the vengeance driven Mannaja (1977). I got turned on to this genre right when DVD hit the market and labels like Blue Underground were putting out uncut editions of these films, and I totally fell in love with the combo of flesh-shredding violence, whacky plotlines, incredible style, and amazing film score music unique to these films.
Obviously, VHS did too, but more than just creating an album packed with genre references, these maniacs created an entirely new sound for this album that's straight-up outlandish. They call it "Spaghetti Western Death Metal", but it’s not at all what you might expect. Which is why I dig the hell out of this. It kicks off with the snap of whips and neighing horses as VHS open with an ode to one of the greatest Italo-Western icons of all time, Django. But it sinks in really fast that you're getting something highly weird: there's the sicko death metal vocals, a pummeling rhythm section, but that's where the "metal" aspect ends and the "Spaghetti" begins: the music is an absolutely bizarre conglomeration of epic Ennio Morricone-inspired guitar licks and cinematic Western soundtrack sounds, blending that twangy guitar with whistling casio-esque keyboards that sound like they've been baking outside in the Mexican sun for an entire summer (and occasionally take on the sound of a horn section), as well as rolling snares, swells of dramatic choral voices, wheezing harmonica melodies, the sounds of gunfire, tambourines, mariachi-esque trumpets (!), the caw of ravens, and other flourishes of music that feel like it's drawn right out of a Morricone or Marcello Giombini score. There's this sun-bleached hypnotic quality that gets more and more apparent as you move through the solemn, atmospheric trot of "Death (Metal) Rides A Horse", those choral sounds swirling in circular form while a gunfight breaks out, and the keyboard-drenched "Dead People Don't Need A Leader" that lays out a weirdly heavy, doom-laden high desert lament.
And then you get a burst of bizarre death-thrash tempos and speedy guitar licks for "Cutthroats", racing through a dust-caked dreamlike smear of sampled dialogue, mesmeric percussion, and those eccentric keyboard arrangements. That sort of intensity pops up more frequently as you get further in, "A Grave For Every Bullet" bringing an a mournful melody weaved into an old-school doom vibe; "The Bastard Returns" evoking malevolence through another weird fusion of heavy backbeat, roaring vocals, and ominous aura backing a classic gunfighter duel. "Life Today Is Horse Droppings" likewise gets heavier with rumbling double bass and haunting minor key elements - there are moments like this that feels like it's right on the verge of turning into full-on death metal, but the winding, twangy (at times, almost surfy) guitars and pseudo-orchestral keys persist. "These Bandits Are Evil Men" drifts into grimy psychedelia, and lastly "A Man Named Blade" brings it all to a magnificent and hallucinatory end as the heavier elements really come to the fore, the guitar and keys suddenly shifting into unsettling dissonance and ugly chords. It's almost proggy as it comes to a close. Freakin' killer. It's dark, weird, and atmospheric as hell. There's also an instrumental piece in the middle of Riffs that pairs that film score style with some muscular drumming, and it's very cool.
These ten songs have all of the tongue-in-cheek 'tude that defines the VHS sound, but the music is played straight, aiming for an admittedly unlikely fusion of influences and ending up with an album that doesn't sound like anything else. Don't let the track titles and album title fool you - this isn't a joke album, the musicianship is solid even in its strangest moments, and there's a cool flow to how VHS puts it all together. That said, if you're a death metal purist, caveat emptor, pal. Actually, if this album had just showed up in my mailbox out of the blue, it sounds and feels like something I'd describe as "outsider metal". Definitely has a similar "vibe". But nope, VHS are an honest-to-goodness death metal band that just happen to have a huge and adventurous creative streak that's carried them into one of the offbeat albums of 2024. There's sort of a shared black humor akin to Birdflesh or Macabre, but soundwise this is all on its own. A lunatic blend of death metal vocals, pummeling rhythm section, and Spaghetti Western score? Strap in, buckaroo.
Posts
