Review by Michael on November 25, 2023.

On their fifth full-length album Inward To Gethsemane, Californian old-school deathers from Vastum travel with us on a very morbid and sick 38-minute trip through horrid visions and utter madness.

Starting with the very cozy title 'In Bed With Death' the listener gets sucked into a very gloomy, disturbing and malevolent atmosphere full of sick vocals, dissonant riffs and a very dense double-bass thunderstorm. The lyrics are absolutely sick as well and totally match with this creation straight out of hell. But if you thought that the quartet would blast through all of their seven songs, you were wrong. With the next one ('Priapic Chasms') they decreased the tempo so much so that the songs get a more death-doom atmosphere which spreads some very sick vibes though. Melodies and structures are, if any, secondary. Nevertheless the chaos sounds comprehensible and for sure this all is a rotten feast for everybody who likes death metal in the putrid, stinking way. In comparison to its predecessor Orificical Purge the band sounds very much fresher, inspired and destructive in the song writing. Where Orificial Purge was a very polished and almost friendly album by the band which didn't had too many of these uncompromising and disgusting parts, Inward To Gethsemane is stuffed with such elements. The vocals alone are so hateful and sick ('Stillborn Eternity' is a very good example of mixing together hateful, deep guttural vocals, high-pitched screams with some sung vocal lines) and the guitar solo full of madness and grief.

The songs are very tight and dense so that there doesn't give any time to relax or rest. In some aspects you can find some really catchy parts too but as I said before, there isn't too much space for melodies or other festive decorations on the album. The band is destroying everything that stands in their way, the relentless compositions grind down everything without mercy. 'Indwelling Archon' may be the best example for this. Starting very fast (and sounding like the decayed brother of old Death songs) this song turns into an avalanche of rotten flesh rolling down from the graveyard on the hill down into the valley and nobody can stop it.

The production is very well done, not over modulated, very well balanced and with a lot of power. This gives the album the matching flair to spread the atmosphere the band wanted to create: sick, evil and menacing. I would say that this album puts the band onto a new level and also pretty much raises the bar for the upcoming albums. Together with the new Cruciamentum one of the late highlights in sick OSDM in 2023.

Rating: 9 out of 10

Review by Felix on December 15, 2023.

The sinister punk thrashers of Violentor have never disappoint my exquisite taste. Four albums with some highlights like 'My Stomach Strong And Fit' form their back catalogue. Now they have opened the next chapter: Manifesto Di Odio lives up to its title. Okay, this is no surprise, because all of their previous albums would have done the same if they had get that title. In other words, Violentor haven’t modified their style. It is still a menacing and ominous sound that rumbles out of the speakers. The arrangements are simple, but not primitive and so we get nine easily accessible pieces of pure inclemency. Of course, the average velocity is pretty high and, better still, a typical trademark of the band returns: the constantly pumping, well audible bass. It gives the band an extra portion of power and I realize almost painfully how much we cannot enjoy when it comes to the thousands of metal albums where the bass guitar plays nearly no role at all.

'Senza Limite' is one of the song titles, but this must be a kind of joke, because Violentor seem to love their self-limitation. I do the same. Why? Well, it is no nice experience when the band has the dubious idea to break out of its scheme. This happens only one time on Manifesto Di Odio; 'Ballad Of The Free Spirits' is an extremely sick number. Pretty idiotic vocals meet dragging guitars which drive on a totally different street than they usually do in Violentor’s sound cosmos. In short, this piece sucks, even though it gives us new insights (“Italian girls are hard to f**k”, really? The cock of the lead singer also plays a role, wonderful!). But it is the only downer of this (too) short album which does not cross the 30 minutes mark. The other material sounds excellent. The opening title track, equipped with a brief theatrical intro, is a true monster. Highly aggressive and with a big dose of pressure, it rushes through the dodgy alleyways of run-down Italian streets on the hunt for new victims. Okay, an opening title track is always confronted with high expectations and therefore one might think that this brilliant beginning is just a matter of course. But Violentor immediately add the next briquette. 'La Paura Uccide' is another example for straight no-frills thrash punk, last but not least due to the great vocals which always have a hysterical undertone. It lends a touch of madness to the dominant malice. The massacre goes on during the next tracks and by the way, maybe “The Massacre” of The Exploited was an inspiration for Violentor or at least for Manifesto Di Odio.

One can enjoy this album or one can live a miserable life as an academic who thinks that music must be highly complicated, totally introvert or filled to the brim with different layers and aesthetic poetry. These blokes will go away empty-handed here. That’s cool, because I feel better when I know that only a circle of clever insiders enjoys these songs and the pretty dry and stripped down production. Finally, it is great that the uncompromising 'Tieni D’occhio La Tua Strada' and the other songs of the second half do not stand in the shadow of the first four tracks. Violentor are narrow-minded, antisocial and they have an affinity for brutality and effective riffs. Given this situation, I hope the recordings for the sixth full-length have already begun.

Rating: 8 out of 10