Video Nasties Brings the Brutality 

Video Nasties is a horror-infused metal band that hales form Liverpool, UK. Their sound is a groovy, hooky, and heavy as hell. Over the layers of instrumental brutality are vocals that range from the nastiest black metal vocals you’ve ever heard to some deep growling cleans. If you pay attention to the melodies in the leads you’ll hear the deep influence of John Carpenter’s scores. In short, they’re a metal band comprised of horror fans. Their debut label release Dominion puts that on full display.

I haven’t been so excited about an album release in a long time. We ran a review of the lead track “Drone Eagle” a month or so ago and was genuinely hooked on this band. I have been anxiously awaiting the advance copies of this album to be available for review. Honestly, I feel bad for people who have to wait another week to check this thing out. That’s enough rambling, let’s get into the metal!

Chaotic Cohesion

Dominion is one of those albums that you can put on just let it play. There are no real lulls or tracks that I felt like skipping. Each song grabs you, takes you on a sonic trip, and passes you off to the next smooth as glass. Video Nasties effortlessly strike the balance between making a cohesive album and making songs that stand out.

The album is packed to the gills with heavy as fuck breakdowns, soaring melodic leads, and killer vocals. There are also some samples from older horror flicks sprinkled in here and there for an added bit of aesthetics. These elements come together to make something that is at the same time polished like a straight razor and gritty as a grindhouse flick.

Not Another Horror Band

Don’t get me wrong, I did bands like Ice Nine Kills and The Jasons and The Misfits are one of my favorite bands of all time; I just think that being a horror band kind of takes away from the re-listen value of some acts. Video Nasties don’t have that problem. Sure, you can tell that these dudes know their shit when it comes to horror. From the Carpenter influences to the samples from films like Daughters of Darkness the band’s love of horror is on full display. They don’t, however just churn out tracks about movies. I feel like that’s an important distinction to make.

Stand Out Tracks

It was hard to pick standout tracks off of Dominion. About mid-way through most of the tracks I made a note to add it to this part of the review. Problem was, I had just about every track on the album on that list. So, I had to really trim it down to just a handful. So here we go.

Stay Gold

Holy shit what a magnificent opening track. It kicks off with a sample from the trailer for Don’t Look in the Basement and immediately kicks into a punishing riff and some vile blackened vocals and just keeps getting better. This track really sets the tone for the rest of tha album.

Transvoltum

You can really hear the punkier influences in the riffs on this track. To me, this track is what wouel happen of a band like the Misfits was heavy as fuck and had some drastically different vocals. “Transvoltum” winds up into a killer breakdown that would no doubt get a room moving. This would be a phenomenal song for the pit from start to finish.

Drone Eagle

This was the lead single off the album and I did a Rancid Rants and Reviews on it, but it is too damned good not to mention again. Go check out that video if you want my full thoughts on it. It’s a great fucking tune.

They Rise

This is the last track on the album and it’s just about perfect for that. If this album was a fireworks display, “They Rise” would be the grand finale. This track brings a nonstop onslaught of heavy, groovy riffs, the vilest of blackened vocals, Carpenter-infused leads, and big heavy breakdowns. The track closes with what sounds like a record skipping and a woman’s voice repeating, “Let the dead bury the dead.” It goes from a wall of aggression to a quiet  creepiness just like  a good slasher flick.

All in all…

All in all would I recommend this album? You’re goddamned right I would. If you like your metal brutal yet melodic, you’ll dig Video Nasties and you’ll want to check out Dominion as soon as possible. The album will be hitting on CD, cassette, vinyl, and digital Friday 13^th. You can buy copies here. In the meantime, you can check out the above tracks or find Video Nasties on Spotify.