Scorn - Vae Solis (1992)Release ID: 1724
Birmingham’s Scorn is an interesting artist who I first found myself investigating shortly after the release of their debut album & mainly off the back of my infatuation with their record label Earache Records whose consistency in leaving me devastated with each successive release was reaching unparalleled levels at the time. I was utterly obsessed with extreme metal back in the early 1990's (still are today if I'm being honest) & would religiously explore each Earache release with the eagerness of a milk-deprived infant & Scorn's strong links to quality extremists such as Napalm Death gave them an extra layer of intrigue & fascination. My initial experiences with "Vae Solis" didn't exactly live up to those expectations though & I remember thinking that even though it was an interesting & seriously oppressive release, a lot of it did sound like a poor man’s Godflesh. It also saw Scorn diluting their industrial metal sound with external influences that I was perhaps not yet fully equipped to deal with. The cold production job only accentuated the album’s lack of accessibility for a teenage me so the album was afforded three or four listens before I found myself moving on to my next musical endeavor. I wouldn’t return to “Vae Solis” for the best part of two decades & it would be off the back of my newly found interest in the illbient & ambient dub subgenres which Scorn played such an important role in promoting during the 1990’s through high quality albums such as 1994’s “Evanescence” & 1995’s “Gyral”. Once again I would find “Vae Solis” to be reasonably entertaining but, given my recent discovery of Scorn's later directions, I'd decide that it was more like a work in progress than the final product they would become after fully transitioning away from metal. Perhaps now is a good time for me to reassess those feelings though as I feel like I’m free of my past agendas & ready to indulge in Scorn's cold, dark industrial soundscapes.
Scorn were originally a collaboration between two former Napalm Death members in vocalist/bassist Nicholas Bullen & drummer Mick Harris (Defecation/Extreme Noise Terror/Unseen Terror) but for their 1992 debut full-length they’d bring in another well-known former Napalm Death member in Godflesh/Jesu/Fall of Because mastermind Justin Broadrick. Despite the presence of the godfather of blast-beats (i.e. Harris) though, Scorn sees Harris & Bullen taking a mostly programmed approach to their beats & keeping well away from their grindcore roots. Instead, “Vae Solis” is very much a tale of two halves with the first seeing the trio sticking very close to the tried & true method that Justin had been championing with his highly acclaimed Godflesh project. In fact, I don’t think I would have been able to tell the difference between the two artists if tested blind given that Broadrick’s guitar work is so accurate to his past works & Bullen’s vocals seem to have been custom-made to emulate Broadrick’s pitchy clean & grunty hardcore-driven deliveries. While it’s true that this material isn’t quite as effective as Godflesh’s more classic 80’s & 90’s releases, in hindsight I think I’ve been a little harsh on Scorn because none of these tracks would have seemed out of place on a Godflesh album & that’s certainly saying something about the quality of the material. The second half of the record sees Scorn flexing their creative muscles a bit more with post-industrial, dub, electronic dance music & ambient influences all getting an airing with unanimously positive results. Strangely considering the musical territory they cover, Scorn somehow manage to keep “Vae Solis” from sounding unfocused though, perhaps due to the consistent quality of the thirteen tracks included as well as the underlying themes of depression & life’s darker underbelly that perpetuate the entire 75 minute runtime.
It all seems to work much better than I gave it credit for on my previous two visits & I think that says as much about where I am in life as it does anything about the actual music. I think I’m just better prepared for some of the more experimental material included here. In fact, the tracks that I find to be the most appealing don’t tend to be the Godflesh-worshipping ones with my favourites being the industrial tech house of “On Ice” (which sounds like Justin Broadrick collaborating with Underworld which can’t be a bad thing) & the cripplingly dark & droning ambient of “Orgy of Holiness”. Some may feel that Scorn lose their way across the back end of this admittedly overly long debut album but it never feels boring because the trio never fail to keep you guessing as to what’s coming next but also keep the cold atmosphere relatively stable along the way. The least impressive moments tend to be those where Bullen’s vocals sound a little lethargic & flat as they do on “Lick Forever Dog” & “Heavy Blood” while the highlights often match up with some of Bullen’s deeper bass lines which are where most of the dub influence comes into play. I’ve always loved the deeper end of dub so this element was something I welcomed with open arms & would be one of the reasons I’d become reacquainted with Scorn in the future.
While not ever really hinting at being any sort of classic release & being somewhat forgotten in the wake of Scorn’s legacy outside of the metal spectrum, “Vae Solis” is a very solid industrial metal release in its own right & is more than deserving of your attention, particularly if you’re a fan of bands like Godflesh or Pitchshifter. It may sound pretty familiar early on but a bit of patience will show it differentiating itself as the tracklisting progresses with the long runtime making it a safe value-for-money purchase. If you’re a metal-at-all-costs kinda listener then you may find yourself struggling to maintain your attention during the back-end of the record initially but I’d encourage you to keep an open mind & give “Vae Solis” a few listens to give it the time to fully divulge its secrets.
It's interesting how the creators of the first side of Napalm Death's Scum, known as the founding album of grindcore, would go on to make their own industrial metal acts. Justin Broadrick would focus on Godflesh, and Mick Harris and Nick Bullen would create... SCORN.
The debut album from this project fits well at home in the Earache label. Although Vae Solis mostly shows its industrial direction, there are slight traces of thrashy death metal that Harris was moving away from for the project. This is heard vocally from Bullen's growls though they're not too far from Broadrick's vocals. Also giving the album a Godflesh vibe is the guitar contributions from Broadrick. However, most of what happens in the album is strong spacey ambience with occasional reverb within the metal.
"Spasm" rolls with a bit of thrash similar to Meshuggah at that time, while staying firmly in industrial metal. One of the more basic Godflesh-sounding tracks is "Suck and Eat You". There's more of the fast thrash in "Hit", having a great connection to Napalm Death in the band's punky side rather than their hyperspeed.
There's some extra percussion used in "Walls of My Heart". The single "Lick Forever Dog" is not really worth DJ usage but it's one of the best of the album. "Thoughts of Escape" is another Godflesh-like tune. The exceptional "Deep in - Eaten Over and Over" is one of the most dreadful-sounding tracks I've heard in industrial metal, almost like funeral doom before the genre was fully developed, though some might be reminded more of Swans than Skepticism. A solid break from the fast pounders!
"On Ice" is a bit sh*tty but still OK. "Heavy Blood" is more mid-paced, but it slowly rises in heaviness, sounding like Godflesh at that time mixed with one of the slower and more melodic Fear Factory ballads. The album rating would've been higher if not for the filler CD bonus tracks, which I don't wanna mention, and the only one of the bonus tracks I enjoy is "Scum After Death". Napalm Death fans might recognize the opening bass from their song "Scum". The 3 voice samples that appear in the song are from I Drink Your Blood: "Do we pray?" "Satan was an acid head." "Together we'll all freak out!"
Bullen's vocals are what stand out in the original tracks, ranging from direct singing to deathly snarls. Again I would've given the album a higher rating if I was only rating the LP edition, which is filled with decently solid industrial metal that can sometimes be brutal or ambient....
Favorites: "Hit", "Lick Forever Dog", "Deep in - Eaten Over and Over", "Heavy Blood", "Scum After Death"
Scorn is the brainchild of Nik Bullen and Mick Harris, both formerly of Napalm Death. This album also features Justin Broadrick on guitar, meaning that the line-up is exactly the same as side one of ND’s classic “Scum” LP. Of course, this is a very different beast. On “Vae Solis,” Scorn sound a lot like Broadrick’s primary band at the time, Godflesh. While the comparison is unavoidable, there are differences. First of all, there is some SERIOUS low end on this fucker. In fact, the heavy low end is one (and possibly the only) element that ties this era of Scorn with pseudo-dubstep style Harris would utilize almost 30 years later (Bullen only lasted a few more records). But back to this record: the sound and production are AWESOME. Huge, deep and brutal. The opening track “Spasm” is like being stomped to death to by English thugs in an abandoned morgue. Unfortunately, most of the rest of the album isn’t as good. They pulled of a killer sound and vibe - to their credit, I think this is more brutal than any of the Godflesh material - but the songs are kind of... meh. The Swans influence is very strong especially on the vox, which can sound cold and mean (particularly on “Walls of My Heart,” which is my 2nd favorite track for some reason), but sometimes are just dull. I went back and forth a lot deciding what to rate this, but I’m giving it a thumbs up (just barely) because the sound/vibe/flavor is so good, even if the songwriting is a little lacking. Let me put it this way: at some point, I’ll be in the mood to listen to this, and this specifically, because of the cold abuse it provides. One more thing: the CD version has 4 tracks the cassette and vinyl do not, including a dub reworking of the title track to “Scum,” which is a cool acknowledgement of their past.
