Vorder – False Haven
Release Date: 26th May 2023
Label: Suicide Records
Bandcamp
Genre: Doom, Sludge, Stoner, Post-Metal.
FFO: Ghost Brigade, Cult of Luna, Neurosis.
Review By: Rick Farley
Vorder formerly known as V, is a doomy, sludgy, post-metal band from hailing from Sweden.
Album opener Introspective begins as a slow burn of open chords and electrified melodies, building its way to a mid-pace chugging with raspy growled vocals. There’s a droning quality of the repetitive riffs, changing from note to note. This has a forward charging doomy feel, that never changes the direction too far, giving the track a clear path towards the end. As an opener, it sets the mood for what should come.
Beyond The Horizon of Life, begins with a sombre string picked guitar melody that lingers on in its airiness for a little over a minute. It gives the atmosphere a sense of dread. It feels like it might burst into something heavier, but it doesn’t ever make it there, rather a simple but constant strummed guitar keeps the build moving at a quicker but still sluggish pace. During the verse the guitars do get a little heavier and move around the fretboard a bit more only to disappear back into a string picked pattern. The track meanders for the final minutes, never really going anywhere. This track feels like filler.
The Few Remaining Lights starts with huge chords and more slow burning melodies. The doom is building to a slow pace. This track is mournfully heavy musically. Unfortunately, the first part is ruined by some questionable or possibly ambivalent clean vocals that I personally did not enjoy. The track doesn’t get enjoyable for me again until closer to the four-minute mark. Raspy gutturals fit this particular passage extremely well as the repetitive riffs and melody drones onward, setting a trance like state for the listener. It takes a heavier turn with crushing guitars and pounding drums as if you’ll be smashed by the sheer weight of its density. Sludgy doom at its best, with moody synths in the background for depth.
False Haven is a stomping, faster paced chunky beater with some hookiness and a driving bassline. The track is broke up into two parts, with the second being stonerish in feel, it almost has a 70s rock vibe that fits the track perfectly.
Judgment Awaits has an ominous guitar driven beginning, surely leading to some heaviness. Brushes on the snare slowly build in volume behind the riff, a kick drum hit and low-end rumbles, but it never makes it. It doesn’t quite have that satisfying heaviness that the beginning riff begs for. There’s a predictability in the songs that should be more likable, but they just don’t reach their full potential, making chunks of the album feel lacklustre.
Closing track Come Undone clocks in at ten and a half minutes. It follows the same formula as several tracks. Sombre beginning or one that seems like it’s going to build, gets heavier, mellows out for moody periods, gets kind of heavy again and just sort of falls flat of ever being fully realized.
Unfortunately, False Haven as an album lacks the spark promised by the opener Introspective, easily one of the two best tracks here. The whole of the album also lacks the creative simplicity and hookiness that title track False Haven shows. The production is extremely thin and does zero justice to any of the album, everything feels dull. However, you can hear the potential in the song writing and there are definite musical moments that are captivating, and memorable. In the end, though, those moments are few and far between, never reaching for more than mediocre. 
(2.5 / 5)
