I remember thinking that Jacob Bannon’s Wear Your Wounds project meant that the Converge frontman was starting to go soft and experimental after many years of screaming bloody murder. Boy was I wrong huh?
While WYW was a chance for Bannon to go fully in on the post-metal shenanigans Converge had toyed with on-and-off over their nine albums, it in no way spelt the end for him being really fucking angry at things. Case in point, his new death metal project Umbra Vitae.
Flanked by current and former members of Hatebreed, The Red Chord and Job For a Cowboy, the supergroup’s debut album is a sub-half hour blast of blood-boiling riffs, doom-inducing vocals and some integrally precise production.
From the band themselves, the album is touted as a call-back to “traditional death metal”, harking back to the genre’s early rise in the form of bands like Obituary, Cannibal Corpse and Deicide. That particular era is clearly evident on the album, its dirgy guitar tone results in guitar riffs feel like they rip their way through the album, with the intense tempo dictated by death metal veteran drummer Jon Rice. A particular, personal highlight for myself is the abuse of harmonics strewn throughout “Polluted Paradise”.
A big obstacle in me going in on any mainstays of traditional death metal is my previously stated ad nauseum preference for modern production techniques. The old school pioneers prided themselves on a muddy production, often purposefully opting for it to manifest the most evil sound possible for their album. On Shadow of Life however, the production is much more suited to a privileged millennial like myself because of it is, it’s produced my Kurt Ballou, the uncrowned king of modern extreme music production (sorry Putney). The riffs on this may tear their way through instead of acute precision, but Ballou’s production means that never feel muddy or lumbering. Even on the album’s most grindcore moments like “Return to Zero”, you can hear and feel every riff change, every progression, every nook and cranny of Sean Martin and Mike McKenzie’s playing.
One last thing that intrigued me with every listen was the vocal performance of the album. Although Bannon is rightfully front and centre, the backings and trade-offs from Sean and Mike bring a whole new intensity to the sound. While Bannon is no stranger to performing at a lower range (although his trademark blood-curdling yelps don’t exactly feel out of place here), having a more traditional death metal growl backing him on say the chorus to “Fear is a Fossil” or “Atheist Aesthetic” or the back-and-forth on “Polluted Paradise” adds a tremendous amount of depth to proceedings, bringing in more death metal graft that may have been lost (by some) to the production.
Umbra Vitae’s debut album is, for me, a success. Rooted in yesteryear’s origins, forged in the fires of modern day, the album is an ensemble of mauling riffs, break-neck drums and a brilliant vocal alliance.
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