Vile Rites – Senescence
Release Date: 16th August 2024
Label: Carbonized Records
Bandcamp
Genre: Death Metal
FFO: Opeth, Gorguts, At The Gates, Mastodon and ’70s prog, psych, and experimental music.
Review By: Eric Wilt
Californian band Vile Rites plays a brand of death metal that is at times progressive and at times technical. On their debut album, Senescence, Vile Rites presents six tracks (five songs and an interlude) that are challenging, memorable, and captivating. Comprised of Alex Miletich on guitars and vocals, Stephen Coon on bass, synth, and field recordings, and Aerin Johnson on drums, Vile Rites tapped into numerous influences during the creation of Senescence, including Opeth, Gorguts, and even nature (I’m not sure exactly how that works, but the results speak for themselves) to create their debut album.
Senescence is filled with intricate riffs and compelling song writing that pushes the limits of what death metal can be. The album gets started with Only Silence Follows, which begins slow and brooding, but quickly moves to a section of technical riffing and blazing drumming that show the level of talent the band possesses. The second track is called Senescent and again sees the band leaning more into the technical side of things. As the song progresses, the band lets their muse wander a bit into instrumental territory that is at times dissonant before a tasty solo comes in. Shiftless Wanderings is next and seems to give a nod to Mastodon with its introduction, but as soon as you hear the similarities, Vile Rites is off into heavier death metal realms. The fourth track is a brief instrumental interlude that, while it doesn’t add much to the album, kind of serves as a break between the first three tracks and the albums two longer tracks, Transcendent Putrefaction and Banished to Solitude (Adrift on the Infinite Waves). These final two tracks are where Vile Rites really shine, as they give the band a larger canvas on which to work. The results are two of the album’s more progressive songs that offer much for the listener to unpack.
While not as progressive as some of their contemporaries, Vile Rites is still a band that knows how to keep listeners on their toes through a mix of technical and progressive riffing. The level of musicianship on the album is obviously high, and with Senescent, the band has offered the death metal community a taste of what is to come for, hopefully, many years.
(4 / 5)
