I simply can’t believe that five years have passed since the last Vandempire release! Dropping at the very end of a tumultuous 2020, The Last Good Thing Has Happened was comfortably in my twenty favourite releases in what happened to be a stacked 12 months. Hope Scars sees the band deliver on the promise shown with a debut album that should get the UK post-metal underground very excited indeed and it deserves so much more attention than it will undoubtedly get.
Whilst having some ridiculous song titles, Vandampire always played a fairly serious strain of post-metal, that hasn’t changed here although the songs have more apt names for their sound, if I were being boring and haughty. The band can crunch as hard as Cult of Luna, fill songs with hazed riffs as well as Bossk and reminisce about the good times of Humanfly and The Mire. What has made Hope Scars such a step forward is undoubtedly the addition of a second guitarist. The sonic scope of the songs is so far reaching and the second and third tracks ‘Hope Scars’ and ‘Ultralow’ show this with weight and heaviness on a grand scale.
Quite uncommon for the genre, Vandampire deploy clean vocals in their songs rather than the usual guttural screams. It also harks back to the Humanfly and The Mire references, especially in midpoint ‘Eaves’ which has vocal hooks that meld wonderfully with the exceptionally emotive and heavy post-metal. There is also a great sense of melancholic melody utilised in two instrumental tracks that don’t break up the album but compliment and elevate the heavier tracks around them.
Whilst the final statement of the introduction was a bit defeatist it is too often true for the UK scene. Even with The Last Good Thing Has Happened it felt like the band should have been far better known than they remained. Hope Scars is an incredible triumph and another sensational UK post-metal debut album. For those who like depth and darkness in the genre Vandampire will completely satisfy. I couldn’t rate this release highly enough.
