Review: Vamachara’s Vicious Embrace of Heaviness with ‘No Roses on My Grave’
Photo courtesy of @bloomxphoto on Instagram
Metalcore, beatdown, and hardcore binding band Vamachara from Southern California, produced an insane album dedicated to the darker aspects and the ‘Left-Hand Path’ of hardcore— the up-and-coming band is one to watch if you have an inclination for that early 2000s revival heat. After touring with Judiciary and Creeping Death for their earlier release, Despondent (released 2018), Vamachara set a high tone for their peers. Their sophomore album, No Roses on My Grave, follows suit, embodying the essence of recklessly heavy hardcore— one of my favorites from this past year. The opening track, “From Miles Away,” strung together with bellowed-out lyrics, violent riffage, and an obvious push for stand-out vocal parts completes the track, presaging the other eight songs on this hammered-out album. The second song entitled, “How Long Until It Kills Me,” has got to be the best content-wise on the album. The lyricism is so gnarly it serves as an ode to all things and people seemingly victims to life with lyrics like: “For peace I pray, but when I’m alone the thoughts crash like waves. Never leave me alone, they never leave me alone [...] From where I sit helping hands unextended are crushing you now. So I, I push it down.” Noteworthy next is the track titled, “Desires Deceased.” The intro already gives listeners a reason to stream. The aggressive drums, and loathsome breakdowns strung together with a guitar tone others can only be envious of, contribute to the fact that the track is completely bodied. The preceding songs only intensify the already prevalent themes in this release: conquering weaknesses and maintaining morality etc. all the while participating in and magnifying their genre-bending capabilities. For new Vamachara listeners, I highly recommend streaming “Deliverance” off their Hereafter EP (released in 2019), as a welcoming introduction to the emanation of the band, and following it up with one of 2023’s best hardcore releases, No Roses on My Grave.