The RMR crew likes itself a bit of abject gurgling from time to time. Death Metal so far underground that no discernible syllable remains audible after the theme is finally destroyed, buried, and the remains fed to hell’s minions dwelling at those unspeakable depths. And usually, such outrageously delicious delivery rolls in on top of a solid wall o’ sound tighter than the devil’s ass.
And we might just have found ourselves another one. This time not from the usual corners in the US and Europe, but from Indonesia of all places. But then, we hear that Brutal Death Metal is pretty big over there. So, let’s have some of that.
Contrary to these guys, you won’t find any funeralistic excesses on Vertiginous‘ newest album, Incessant Affliction. Instead, trve putrefied liquid Brutal Death Metal will greet you with nauseous intent. Their neck of ghoul-infested woods won’t allow no ray of light. It is just Gehenna writ large, slathered in blood and gore. Festering rot that the band magnanimously serves on large lead platters ready to poison any well it touches.
But will Vertiginous be able to take this record out of the muck and kick it up a few notches up the dung-covered flagpole? The RMR crew ain’t all that certain. You see, Incessant Affliction hits all the right buttons. It delivers, for all intents and purposes, its deathly wares with intent and sick gusto. And make no mistake, Vertiginous are already way further down in the rotten pit than the sewage-guzzling Lust of Decay will ever be. Yet, in their mysterious horror-laden ways, the band may well have tried to align themselves a tad too much to what biggies such as Cannibal Corpse or Dying Fetus1 are already up to.
Meaning, Incessant Affliction boasts a slice of Extreme Metal that is very close to the masters that be in deathly lore. But never as dynamic as the folks over at Castrator will ever be.2 Vertiginous is – after all – a young band going through the motions of ripping metal’s soul out of its foundation and rearranging it in a variety of noxious patterns.
That said, Incessant Affliction‘s super-crisp 30-minute airtime is chock-full of the rich smörgåsbord of vile and rancid objects extreme Death Metal loves to display and Vertiginous know their brutal fare in and out. And this is exactly where the record’s purported strength turns into its very own weakness. Right off the bat, the band serves the audience with technically outstanding but all-too-familiar grime and grit. Stuff this crew has already heard in some similar form over time. Delivered with monolithic, somewhat rigid obstinacy that takes no prisoners. It is as if Vertiginous here drive Incessant Affliction down that slippery road to damnation on an even keel. To the point that one has difficulty discerning which track is demanding your attention exactly. And this means that the terrible daemon of endless repetitions raises its ugly head more often than not.
And where does that leave us? Incessant Affliction served us with trve metal carnage. But it’s a massacre that follows the old masters without much room for any Vertiginous maneuvers that would whet our appetite. The RMR crew missed that dynamism, the abject violence, the true search for the vilest prurient putrescence. Just think about about the lengths the aforementioned Cannibal Corpse would traverse to squeeze the last ounce of ghoul blood from all those dead bodies.
Yet here we have a band that seems to quake in the wake of the Grand Masters without any chance to catch up or surpass them. At least for this time. Oh, and that the band kept the airtime short and sweet most probably saved their mutual asses from utter destruction by this crew. Because much more of the same similarity we would not be able to take.
Record Rating: 5/10 | Label: Comatose Music | Web: Official Band Site
Release Date: 7 August 2026