Oof! Like walking into the entirely wrong pub (imagine pubs were properly open and normal – remember?), it only takes seconds of Culling Culture kicking off to realise you might be in for a serious beating. A brief intro eases you in before the first big riff and bestial vocal hit like the ceiling falling in. Then opener proper Hideous lurches in with a low and monstrously heavy groove and all hell breaks loose. If you just wanted heavy, of course, you could stick with the established roster of basic deathcore sluggers. Vexed can loose a drop-tuned riff as well as pretty much anyone, but there’s far more to their sound and talent than that. Guitarist Jay Bacon can play equally well from the gut and the brain, and those monolithic riffs are frequently criss-crossed ...
