VEXED’s Negative Energy turns the filthiness up to eleven
VEXED
On June 23rd, Hertfordshire’s 3-piece alt-metal band VEXED finally released with Napalm Records their much anticipated follow-up album: Negative Energy, and it delivers a brutal sound I can only summarise with the term ‘cyber-djent’.
In the saturated and diverse landscape of modern metal, it’s safe to say it’s challenging to create a unique sound. Experimenting is no longer just welcome, it's expected… and VEXED has not missed the memo.
While the bands debut LP brought killer riffs and haunting ambient leads, with a healthy even mix of clean melodic and gritty guttural vocals, Megan (vocals), Jay (Guitar) and Willem (Drums) have clearly decided to push their sound to its heaviest extent. Exchanging the melodic for a techno twist and turning up the filthiness to eleven, their use of scattering edits and glitchy, piercing dissonance contrasts the low bellowing drones in their riffs. Combined, it sounds exactly like an AI having its first existential crisis – a true overload of chaos.
Negative Energy‘s outstanding factor is its impeccable use of rhythm. Though I am a lover of shredding leads, the sheer ferocity of Jay’s guitar donates plenty of power and atmosphere to compliment Megan’s wide variety of screams. The pace range between the slow diving crashes of the Lay Down Your Flowers breakdown (featuring Alpha Wolf’s Lochie Keogh) to the ceaseless, erratic pounding of Extremist and Panic Attack, in which the hook lyric “just breathe” is poetically ironic as there’s very few moments in Megan’s vocals which allow you to.
Trauma Euphoria is easily the flagship of the album, and my personal favourite. Welcoming back Megan’s blissful singing and an uplifting noodling solo, the track combines the heavier sound with the tech-core guitar, a tribute to their earlier sound. It’s not surprising Trauma Euphoria was one of the singles, alongside Anti-Fetish and X my <3 (Hope to die).
My only slight grudge on this album is nothing to do with the tracks themselves, but rather the order. The opening track PTSD is a fitting, traumatically menacing intro. Following that, the first two thirds of the album can only be described as an onslaught, playing one heavy track after the next. Though hard hitting, when listening in order it can be rather wearing, and somewhat dilutes the intensity after a while. Clean vocals don’t appear until track 9, Default, and continue to feature for the remaining third of the album. DMT is a hypnotic, experimental track which would have made a perfect interlude, had it been placed earlier in the lineup.
Lastly, the album finishes with the apocalyptic breakdown of Nepotism, which lasts for over a minute until it fades out to close. While this is certainly a fitting conclusion for the album, I can’t help but think track 11, (ironically, titled It’s not the end) would have made a better one – it has this ethereal chorus at the end which I could immediately picture fans singing their hearts out to. It stands out as one of the pedestal moments of the album which would have made a perfect emotional climax to end the rageful and bitter storm of sound which is Negative Energy.
