VULVODYNIA: “ENTABENI”

Sep 042024

(Our distinctive contributor, the South Africa born and Vietnam resident Vizzah Harri, is back at NCS with his review of a new album by the South African death metal band Vulvodynia, which was released in July of this year by Unique Leader Records.)

Click play with caution, because there is a real danger that your attention might be shanghaied for a full forty-one minutes and 8 seconds, the runtime for Entabeni, Vulvodynia’s fifth, released by Unique Leader Records (that’s if you’re not counting 2015’s Finis Omnium Ignorantiam ‘EP’ which clocked in over 34 minutes).

L-R Nate Gilbert, Lwandile Prusent, Thomas Hughes, Luke Haarhoff, Kris Xenopoulos. Image by @williamiguess

For rest-of-the-worlders like me, a fifth of liquor refers to a fifth of a gallon (3,78ish liters) and therefore just over a standard 750ml bottle at 0.757liters. Which is interesting if you follow my numero-logic because on 14 September 1999 a Boeing 757 crash-landed in a thunderstorm in Spain, with all aboard exiting safely except one unfortunate passenger succumbing later to internal wounds. Whether this was from the plane crash or because the Spanish band Avulsed released their brutally groovy sophomore album Stabwound Orgasm 5 days earlier is up for debate (apologies and condolences to the family).

Some of our readers might not have been born yet 25 years ago, but Anaal Nathrakh and Psycroptic were established that year, and Wormed’s demo Floating Cadaver in the Monochrome was released as well as some excellence in putridity discharged by Aborted, Akercocke, Anal Cunt, and Dark Tranquillity. It was also a(n) (ig)noble year for South Africa, seeing as entrepreneurs Charl Fourie and Michelle Wong were awarded the Ig Nobel prize for peace for inventing an anti-carjacking flamethrower, nicknamed The Blaster.

The Blaster

South African Lwandile Prusent, who filled guitar duties on Vulvodynia’s previous album, was 4 years old in 1999 and we’re pretty certain he did not use a flamethrower to keep people from stealing his toy cars. Fast-forward a quarter century and he’s taken over roaring vociferation duties in the band. And with those loosely connected facts mired in obscurantism pinballing in your brain, allow me to hijack your attention back to the matter at hand.

Lwandile Prusent. Image by @jwehlerphoto

Vulvodynia named themselves after death manifest in pain, a pain most men would never have to experience or comprehend. As a medical condition it does however have a male counterpart. It’s called Dysaesthetic Peno or Scroto-dynia. Ever wondered why teenagers always draw penises on walls but there ain’t a band named Scrotodynia? Heads up young brutal death metal band: there is a gift of a name for you.

This troupe of now global effectual consideration has matured to a level where the forgettable fads of instant adrenaline hits can be something of the past. Entabeni is an arrival of a new era, a statement of becoming, and a shift towards mating hard-earned experience with the maturity of agency. Rooted however in the void of mirth, Entabeni translates as ‘The mountain’, referring to a brutal rite of passage tens of thousands of boys are forced to undertake in South Africa each year in order to be seen as men. It involves crude traditional circumcision sans anesthetics or antiseptics, followed by a duration of seclusion.

Every year, countless boys die while others have to suffer genital amputation because of infections. The petrified yet baleful tendrils of the long dead incessantly pillaging vitality from the youth. Vulvodynia went back to their roots thematically, albeit diversifying outward in scope of sound.

Dystopian horror-scapes populate the sonic tapestry in the prelude, more like a whole city submitted to a riotous conflagration, tension building into the first riff. Imbawula is a makeshift heater made from a metal or tin drum with holes punched in the sides, heated with coal or whatever fuel is available. It’s kind of nice being told that you’re experiencing a warm-up for what is set to unfold.

With Devil Tree it’s all guns blazing, or is that the sound of uncountable assegais (stabbing spears) hitting home? An onomatopoeic word intimating the sound created from stabbing a human body and retrieving the weapon. Is this industrial symphonic tech death we hear? The orchestral overtures are matched by the guitars which go into some blisteringly intriguing tones. The vocals are a massive step up with breaks pummeling with an indignation reserved for naught. The solo doesn’t overstay and the main theme returns and is sure to be stuck in your head, if you don’t hit shuffle or listen to the rest of the album that is. Devil Tree is a massive opener.

Luke Haarhoff and Kris Xenopoulos. Images by @jwehlerphoto

The Randlord unleashes an instrumental assault without restraint with demented vox challenging the rap god himself in busting rhymes. A direct critique on the legacy of Cecil John Rhodes. Yes, the same guy who tried to build a railroad from Cape Town to Cairo and who established the Rhodes Scholarship and multiple universities across the world. But this is a case where the gray in the character is closer to that of a charcoal hue for being a direct influence on segregation and the eventual abominable disgrace that was apartheid. The term blood diamond is directly related back to this scumbag.

It Follows is one of the biggest steps forward in melodicity for Vulvodynia’s brutal onslaught, traversing into progressive realms. The melodies soar, meander, and positively sway. Not content with sticking to one set-and-sure formula, the experimentation pays off massively. Remorseless breakdowns, swirling strings, and a drum attack delivered and recorded with the utmost precision and an ear for groove. Pushing the envelope of what is expected, rejecting the notion of falling flat, it might just make it all the way to the infectious lists.

Thomas Hughes. Image by @briankrahe

The battle of Isandlwana was a massive defeat for the British Empire, who had never before suffered as big a thrashing by a foe indigenous to a land they invaded with inferior military technology. It was a pyrrhic victory for the Zulu Kingdom and led to more aggressive tactics by the empire, but it made the British think twice about bringing a gun to an assegai fight. With guest vocals from David John Simonich, Isandlwana is a stomper showcasing apt ferocity in commemoration to the brave Zulu warriors of 145 years ago.

Moving more in the direction of mythology, Mamlambo is the goddess of rivers. Part homage to Tom Morello and at the same time channeling Steve Vai-inflected solos, with a palette of melo-death rhythms, techy leads, and a clear yet malleable skein of atmospheric melodic prowess.

As soon as I read the title of track 7, Adamaster, my pareidolic brain jumped to Anaster (spoiler alert!), the king of the Tenescowri (more spoilers) from the Malazan Book of The Fallen by Steven Erikson (yes, I’m a bit of a fan). It alludes however to Adamastor, a Greek myth grounded in the Cape of Good Hope as a deification of the savage Cape storms. Tempestuous, uncompromising, and fierce, the diagnosis might be surfer’s ear if you are not careful.

Long slated as deathcore, by some as brutal tech-death, Vulvodynia has morphed over their 10-year life into something more akin to brutal Quake-core, for the most prevalent guitar sound that mercilessly bludgeons into your skull for the near full runtime cannot be described other than as a musically distorted rendition of a Quake or Doom soundbite. The ever-present Quake chug that might be off-putting for some listeners is the only slight detraction for a mountainous album that is also striking, formidable, and a touch bombastic.

The back-end triptych of the title track, Mangled and Maimed, and Generational Segregation really showcases the strengths of the band and their prescience of keeping some aces up their sleeve. Take your pick, randomize the album and throw a dart at it. There is formula here, there is theme, solid songwriting, and yes there are tropes; but Vulvodynia almost created their own genre devices just for this album. Progressive and ground-shattering with entrancing solos. It’s not the kind of music that caresses, this shit fucking slaps.

In a parallel universe there is a website called NoCoreSubsumption. Core gets a lot of flak, Vulvodynia sucked up all the ire and expelled it into an album which at its… core cannot simply be defined as a deathcore album. Brutal, melodic, progressive!? Which box does it fall neatly into? Don’t even bother, once you click play, you’re in for a thrill ride you won’t regret.

There is not a weak track present, there isn’t a stronger front or back half, no overlong intros or outros, the final track ends so suddenly it’s as if they ceased recording mid set and are keeping the rest of the double album for release on Friday the 13th, ah no, that’s the day they’re coming to Vietnam to defile ears in Ho Chi Minh City. Asian, Australian, and New Zealand tour dates for September and October: