Rocker (feedbot)
Gold Member
In 2021, Vexed released their debut album ‘Culling Culture’. It showed off their songwriting chops, and there were whispers; Could they be The Next Big Thing? Last year, fuelled by the weight of expectation, the band reunited in Hertfordshire, intending to make a record that was epic, dark, complex and bold…
Except they scrapped it. Expectations be damned, they were going to do things their way. The resulting record, ‘Negative Energy’, is driven by the mantra; “Keep it simple, keep it honest, go hard”. This turned out to be a good decision as, put simply, the record rips.
On the band’s debut, you could predict how the songs would play out solely by following the track order. Yes, they had flare, but the album felt remarkably safe, like a vicious beast tied to a stake. Here, they’ve unleashed it, channelling energies in one direction and, while it’s less varied, the overall picture is more distinctive and powerful. Of course, it helps that the band’s default sound is as agile and vicious as an MMA fighter. Built around a groove-laden modern metal sound, it’s flavoured with djent and overlain with a frightening, pummelling vocal from Megan Targett. If you’ve heard the band’s breakout 2021 single ‘Hideous’, you’ll know what to expect as it’s the basic template for almost every song here. Yes, the slow singing and delay pedal antics turn ‘It’s Not The End’ into a carefully positioned respite but it’s mostly an intense album of lurching riffs, chugging bass-strings and thrilling breakdowns.
If you’re looking for riffs, you can’t ignore the fast, fluid opening to ‘Nepotism’ or ‘Lay Down Your Flowers’ but it’s the way different parts push, pull and whipcrack that gives the songs depth and keeps the album flowing. Often, djent-style metal can be a little mechanical so the way Willem Mason-Geraghty’s drums come across as natural and engaging makes the music feel personal without compromising on power.
Guitarist Jay Bacon also deserves recognition for his creativity. While the album is built on huge, rhythmic, swaying riffs the real highlight is the absolute filth he wrings from his guitar. Strange sounds and aggressive squeals define ‘Lay Down Your Flowers’ and there’s Tom Morello style string scratching on ‘There’s No Place Like Home’. However, it’s the repeated and persistent pitch bending on ‘Anti-Fetish’ that really stands out, turning one of the metal scene’s more familiar and oft-used tricks into something more menacing, more exciting and individual. This inventiveness even applies to the album’s numerous breakdowns, where needling stabs and unusual sounds add different flavours to what could have simply been rhythmic pummelling. Of course, all these sounds are enhanced by Meyrick De La Fuente’s production which captures a fat, rich depth without losing the intensity or personality of the instruments.
One of the album’s most striking qualities is the way it captures different emotional states. To give you some idea, the opening instrumental is called ‘PTSD’, neatly setting the scene for the heart-fluttering verse of ‘Panic Attack’ and the anxiety-inducing ‘Extremist’. Each song makes you feel a concoction of emotions, mostly ones that will get your heart racing.
Targett described the creation of the band’s first album as ‘sporadic’ so the u-turn and rapid construction behind this one creates quite a different beast. Not overthinking the songs means they rely on an energetic rawness and her vocals absolutely thrive on it. Largely presented as harsh bellows, low screams, and rapid-fire verses, she hits like a furious boxer, repeatedly catching you off guard as she switches flows. It’s a performance that’s both impressive and frightening in equal measure. Clean singing appears too and while she’s not as powerful as when using harsher styles, her voice is distinctive and adds a welcome change of flavour to songs like ‘Default’ and ‘It’s Not The End’.
Lyrically, the album is direct and it’s not hard to pinpoint exactly what each song is referring to, making it easy to get swept up in the emotion. If you’ve followed the band, you’ll quickly pick up who Targett wrote ‘It’s Not The End ‘ about and the song functions as a kind of key for understanding her process; Metaphors are out, honesty is king and she’s angry. Really angry. The intense and brutally honest turns of phrase make it explicit where she’s channelling her ire and she confronts each topic with fury to spare. This works extremely well on ‘We Don’t Talk About it’ , which revels in the discomfort of facing a topic head-on (and might remind you of the approach taken by directly confrontational bands like Svalbard). This honesty and directness creates an almost skin-crawling sensation on ‘Trauma Euphoria’, especially when you realise what she’s describing and it proves to be a highlight. At other times her approach can feel counterproductive, like on ‘Extremist’ where interesting interpretations are shut out during the first verse, meaning it’s literally about religion and feels lesser as a result. This is also true of the weirdly impersonal ‘Nepotism’ which feels a bit zeitgeisty and the only statement she has to make reads like the dictionary definition, after spending the preceding tracks chewing her way through so many different types of sexism, it feels a bit underdeveloped.
Switching between angry, hurt and nigh-on furious, Vexed have used their ‘Negative Energy’ to create a powerful statement. This is what happens when you uncage the beast – recoil in awe.
IAN KENWORTHY
Except they scrapped it. Expectations be damned, they were going to do things their way. The resulting record, ‘Negative Energy’, is driven by the mantra; “Keep it simple, keep it honest, go hard”. This turned out to be a good decision as, put simply, the record rips.
On the band’s debut, you could predict how the songs would play out solely by following the track order. Yes, they had flare, but the album felt remarkably safe, like a vicious beast tied to a stake. Here, they’ve unleashed it, channelling energies in one direction and, while it’s less varied, the overall picture is more distinctive and powerful. Of course, it helps that the band’s default sound is as agile and vicious as an MMA fighter. Built around a groove-laden modern metal sound, it’s flavoured with djent and overlain with a frightening, pummelling vocal from Megan Targett. If you’ve heard the band’s breakout 2021 single ‘Hideous’, you’ll know what to expect as it’s the basic template for almost every song here. Yes, the slow singing and delay pedal antics turn ‘It’s Not The End’ into a carefully positioned respite but it’s mostly an intense album of lurching riffs, chugging bass-strings and thrilling breakdowns.
If you’re looking for riffs, you can’t ignore the fast, fluid opening to ‘Nepotism’ or ‘Lay Down Your Flowers’ but it’s the way different parts push, pull and whipcrack that gives the songs depth and keeps the album flowing. Often, djent-style metal can be a little mechanical so the way Willem Mason-Geraghty’s drums come across as natural and engaging makes the music feel personal without compromising on power.
Guitarist Jay Bacon also deserves recognition for his creativity. While the album is built on huge, rhythmic, swaying riffs the real highlight is the absolute filth he wrings from his guitar. Strange sounds and aggressive squeals define ‘Lay Down Your Flowers’ and there’s Tom Morello style string scratching on ‘There’s No Place Like Home’. However, it’s the repeated and persistent pitch bending on ‘Anti-Fetish’ that really stands out, turning one of the metal scene’s more familiar and oft-used tricks into something more menacing, more exciting and individual. This inventiveness even applies to the album’s numerous breakdowns, where needling stabs and unusual sounds add different flavours to what could have simply been rhythmic pummelling. Of course, all these sounds are enhanced by Meyrick De La Fuente’s production which captures a fat, rich depth without losing the intensity or personality of the instruments.
One of the album’s most striking qualities is the way it captures different emotional states. To give you some idea, the opening instrumental is called ‘PTSD’, neatly setting the scene for the heart-fluttering verse of ‘Panic Attack’ and the anxiety-inducing ‘Extremist’. Each song makes you feel a concoction of emotions, mostly ones that will get your heart racing.
Targett described the creation of the band’s first album as ‘sporadic’ so the u-turn and rapid construction behind this one creates quite a different beast. Not overthinking the songs means they rely on an energetic rawness and her vocals absolutely thrive on it. Largely presented as harsh bellows, low screams, and rapid-fire verses, she hits like a furious boxer, repeatedly catching you off guard as she switches flows. It’s a performance that’s both impressive and frightening in equal measure. Clean singing appears too and while she’s not as powerful as when using harsher styles, her voice is distinctive and adds a welcome change of flavour to songs like ‘Default’ and ‘It’s Not The End’.
Lyrically, the album is direct and it’s not hard to pinpoint exactly what each song is referring to, making it easy to get swept up in the emotion. If you’ve followed the band, you’ll quickly pick up who Targett wrote ‘It’s Not The End ‘ about and the song functions as a kind of key for understanding her process; Metaphors are out, honesty is king and she’s angry. Really angry. The intense and brutally honest turns of phrase make it explicit where she’s channelling her ire and she confronts each topic with fury to spare. This works extremely well on ‘We Don’t Talk About it’ , which revels in the discomfort of facing a topic head-on (and might remind you of the approach taken by directly confrontational bands like Svalbard). This honesty and directness creates an almost skin-crawling sensation on ‘Trauma Euphoria’, especially when you realise what she’s describing and it proves to be a highlight. At other times her approach can feel counterproductive, like on ‘Extremist’ where interesting interpretations are shut out during the first verse, meaning it’s literally about religion and feels lesser as a result. This is also true of the weirdly impersonal ‘Nepotism’ which feels a bit zeitgeisty and the only statement she has to make reads like the dictionary definition, after spending the preceding tracks chewing her way through so many different types of sexism, it feels a bit underdeveloped.
Switching between angry, hurt and nigh-on furious, Vexed have used their ‘Negative Energy’ to create a powerful statement. This is what happens when you uncage the beast – recoil in awe.
IAN KENWORTHY