Pain and agony often aren’t choices. They are the feelings and experiences we endure when we are pushed to our limits, when we are dragged to dangerous situations that likely aren’t good for us and might not even make us stronger mentally. These are stories that stretch back to the dawn of humanity, or at least the written word, and not having a choice in the matter can be violently frustrating.

This brings us to “Inward to Gethsemane,” the insanely great fifth record from Vastum, and while much of the death metal circle is fairly Christ hating, this album aligns with his torture and death in a way you might not expect. If you were anticipating psychological sexual tortures and pain, yeah, that’s also here in spades as this band—vocalist Daniel Butler, vocalist/guitarist/synth player Leila Abdul Rauf, guitarist Shelby Lermo, bassist Colin Tarvin, drummer Chad Gailey—has made a practice out of exploring those terrifying corners of reality. But this record also leans into bodily torture one cannot just ask out if, not unlike Christ’s suffering in Gethsemane before his bloody journey to Golgotha, a sacrifice made for all humanity via a tortuous death. Maybe you don’t buy into that story, and that’s fine, but the underlying themes are universal, and we all face trials that will cost us physically and mentally despite our wills.

“In Bed With Death” opens in a strange aura as the guitars get started, warped riffs tangling you with psychosis. The power stomps as the shrieks menace, Butler and Rauf trading off lines, leaving steaming bruising. “Free from maternal boundary violations, spilling seeds, burdened by ancient pain that gestate inside her,” carves into your brain as the playing comes unglued, the carnage leaving you nauseated.  “Priapic Chasms” smears, the pace mashing, deep growls digging into your entrails. The guitars smoke and then deface, beastly howls crash down and leave permanent scarring, and then the playing blinds you, zapping and punishing, mangling flesh. “Stillborn Eternity” is edgy with dual howls leading the way, strange speaking making you question your sanity, trudging and thrashing as guitars melt veins. “Into the ether, falling, a bastard unto the aeons, inverting, imploded,” is wailed, feeling like nightmares come to life, while a mystical aura forms and combines with the ugliness, ripping apart with leads that lash with sharpened teeth. Melodies twist the knife, guitars burn, and nasty growls scathe and splinter.

“Judas” is a strange interlude, sounds welling as the guitars create impenetrable steam, dialog flowing underneath that makes it feel like your sanity left long ago. “Indwelling Archon” picks up and digs into wounds, the power pulverizing, vicious growls clawing into your mind and leaving permanent damage. The leads spark a twisted, evil convulsion of sound, a mauling force that menaces and bursts with terror. “Vomitous (in the Agony Garden)” chugs and lurches, the growling splattering, the call of, “Sprawled, my agony!” making psychological trauma that much deeper. The playing combusts as the bludgeoning gets meaner, the howl of, “Sprawling, can’t stop subjecting myself to your finger inside my eye, feeling emetic, in distress, can’t stop vomiting,” a sight you can’t unsee in your mind, the heat becoming unbearable. Butler’s detached speaking makes blood go cold, and then the playing storms anew, glistening and bending, the harshness disturbing your thoughts. “Corpus Fractum” is the eight-minute closer, a dose of pure fright, ferocious vocals, and immersive guitars combining to take you down. “I will be in agony until the end of the world, there must be no sleeping during this time, spiritual insomnia, my ego is blurred, I’m high on the cross, so high I’m blind,” digs into Christ-like psychosis, a hypnotic haze wrapping around the punishment, brutally striking back mentally and physically. The heat begins to choke you as gargantuan growls clutch throats, alien waves torturing you forever.

A Vastum record never is an easy experience for the uninhibited, and even if you’ve been along for the entire five-album ride, their psychologically damaged death metal still finds ways to create new mental wounds. “Inward to Gethsemane” is a penetrating experience, another sojourn into the worst, most warped forces in this world, compounding your suffering with the band’s uneasy approach to death metal that can leave you heaving in pain. That’s a strange way to compliment a record that’s barbaric and devastating in the best possible way, but it would be dishonest to not hammer home the pain you’ll feel while you’re in its clutches as you get way more torture than you likely expected at the outset.

For more on the band, go here: https://www.facebook.com/vastumofficial

To buy the album, go here: https://www.20buckspin.com/collections/vastum

For more on the label, go here: https://www.20buckspin.com/