Venomous Echoes |Ŋvęŧş: Violator Of Mater |I, Voidhanger Records

Venomous Echoes is the American one man band of Ben Vanweelden, an experimental, dissonant black/death project now on its 4^th album. The earlier work circled the fears tied to body dysmorphia, and “Ŋvęŧş: Violator Of Mater” goes into much darker ground, the real abuse that shaped the creation at the center of these stories. Vanweelden writes the concept and plays guitars, bass, programming, synths, sampling, vocals and noise. Stephen Knapp produces, plays guitars, programs the drums, mixes and masters, and adds his voice on the closing track. I, Voidhanger Records releases it on CD and digital.

“Ŋvęŧş: Violator Of Mater” runs a bit over fifty minutes and tells its story as a descent through realms. The creation breaks through Dysmor, lands in Malcloid, meets a pillar built from the essence of his mother, then faces the abusers, each one an appendage of the beast that names the closing track. The subject is real abuse, and the lyrics treat it without decoration, though the titles alone will not carry a listener through it without some digging. The tracks lurch between black/death acceleration and doom slowdowns. “Malcloid” sets up that whiplash at nearly seven minutes, and “Mater” and “L·Lrąç” stretch it further. Knapp buries the guitars in oppressive distortion, a good match for dissonant riffing whose unease depends on bleeding into everything around it.

The programmed drums keep every speed change precise, and that precision is the soft spot, since a doom crawl usually needs a human hand to sag and stumble. Vanweelden covers every other instrument, and the noise and sampling add an extra layer of unease. “Æhɔɲ”, “Çịrẹ” and “Ẅęrð” sit within a narrow band of running times, and that evenness risks blurring the middle stretch before Knapp’s voice arrives on “Ŋvęŧş”, the eleven minute closer and the only place a second vocalist appears. That late arrival gives the ending a real event to build toward. What sets the album apart is the story, a real one, and the way the tracks refuse to stay at one speed for long. It is a grim, committed dissonant black/death album that holds its shape across its length, pulled back a notch by mechanical drums and a middle stretch that runs on similar settings.

|7.5