So, are you in a mood for some great sounding death metal? You know, something in the vein of the old school USDM? Well, for that we’re not going to check the new releases in Florida or New York, believe it or not. Instead, we’re gonna go to a distant place…Jakarta, Indonesia. Because I just happen to have some goodie for you.
And I’m not kidding, Vox Mortis have just released (on February 26th, 2021, to be precise) their first debut album, titled Avignam Jagat Samagram! Obviously, as it’s the case of the vast ID scene, it’s hard to keep track of everything released there, but once something catches my eye, I’d be damned not to check it out. As you know, I don’t hide my love and respect for this country’s scene, so that should come as no surprise.
Back to the album. Any good? Tell you this – Vox Mortis is well worthy of your time. We’re talking about almost 50 minutes long album with 13 cuts to prove their worth.
Oh, not to forget…These guys are serious about animal rights, which is also evident in song titles as “Forever No To Dog Meat” or “Friends Not Food” (with an interesting chant as the intro, although with my poor bahasa I’ve only got “anjing dan kucing” (a dog or a cat)).
Musical qualities – do we need to talk about them? Those guys did their homework (also in their respective previous groups) and they have good idols to take their inspiration from.
And with songs like the titular “Avignam Jagat Samagram” I have no doubts these guys will meet the well deserved success. What’s used there…a trumpet? It might be a keyboard with trumpet sound, or a real trumpet, but man…does it sound fantastic! It’s also used in “Bayar Dendam Balas Hantam”, even to the greater extent and I do really love that! Also recommended is “Tetes Darah Pecundang” with clever guitar play and double vocals (guttural and high pitched one)…but it’s really hard – if not impossible – to pick just one song as a top one, this album is enjoyable from the start to finish.
As mentioned, the album contains 13 tracks, one is instrumental (“Ode Untuk Sang Jenderal”, which at times – the riff in the song’s first half – reminds me of the almighty Death, also that spoken word in bahasa in the last part of the song fits there perfectly) and the last song is a tribute to Morbid Angel’s “Chapel of Ghouls/Immortal Rites”.
And all this just when I wanted to stop buying CDs for some time…but I definitely need that in my collection. And if you are a death metal fan, you will want “Avignam Jagat Samagram” too.
Oh, and if Vox Mortis is not enough, check, for example, the review for another Jakarta death metal ensemble – Twin Force Kill and their “Cryteria Human Killer”
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/voxmortis.id/
Bandcamp: https://voxmortisdeath.bandcamp.com/
