(((O))) Review: Vandampire – The Last Good Thing Has Happened

I promised myself I was finished reviewing for 2020, but then one of the years best labels dropped a final release which is so good I felt compelled to write about it. Trepanation has had a blistering year and Vandampire finishes that off in devastating fashion with The Last Good Thing Has Happened. This has tinges of sludge and post-metal that combine to make for a neck achingly great release.

This is a fairly diverse EP and the tracks are far more serious than the titles suggest and it plunges from a dark acoustic opener to back breaking riffs. Closing track ‘Freak Show Sideshow At The Shit-Show’ sums it all up beautifully as it starts slowly and steadily gains weight until the climatic conclusion. 2020 seems to have seen a resurgence in the epic closing track and this is no exception. The other really weighty moments come in ‘The End of Summer’ and ‘I Don’t Need To Apologise, God’s Forgiven Me’. Here there are flicks of post-metal greats but not a hint of plagiarism. As with the Bosphorus release earlier this year it falls on the sludgy, murkier end of the post-metal scale and doesn’t mess about serving up wave after wave of interesting riffs and outstanding drumming.

‘You’ve Gone Grey’ is a darker track which reminds me of People Used To Live Here era Spook The Horses. As with ‘I Am Always Hungry’ it is musically lighter than the other tracks on the EP but both have a sense of danger to them. The vocals are clean but always foreboding and there is no relaxing as anticipation of something crushing is always in the back of my mind.

Vandampire are currently gearing towards a full album and on the back of its two EPs it seems like it is going to be something special. What a year for music and what a year for Trepanation Records.