ME STUPID, NO KNOW VASTUM

I am an ignorant slut.

Even though both Ryan Butler and Matt Martinez from Landmine Marathon put Vastum’s Carnal Law on their 2011 year-end lists, and even though MetalSucks’ own Satan Rosenbloom was strongly considering the album for his own list, and even though Corey Mitchell… well, actually, Corey thought it was “meh.” But he “almost thought” it was good, so that’s something!

And yet, I never checked out Carnal Law until this afternoon, when Brad Fickeisen, former drummer for The Red Chord, recommended it to me via Twitter.

For shame, Axl. For shame. Carnal Law is ugly, raw death metal, but what sets it apart is the pace and the quality of the riffs. Everything — including the guitar solos, which are never unstructured King/Hanneman stuff — is catchy as hell, and played at a… well, maybe not quite an elephants marching speed, but certainly an elephants galloping speed. The combination of these two elements pretty much ensures that, yes, you will be bouncing your head in time with the music. Seriously. Don’t try to fight it — you’ll lose.

Vastum’s Carnal Law is out now on 20 Buck Spin. You can stream and/or purchase the entire thing here. The cost of legally downloading the album is $6.66, which should really be the cost of all heavy metal mp3 downloads from now on.

In the event you’re too lazy to click a fucking link, here’s “Devoid,” the track which Brad recommended, and which sold me on the whole thing in the first place.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0tj_pqn1olg&feature=youtube_gdata_player

Also, if you’re not already, you should be following Brad Fickeisen on Twitter.

-AR