Invertebrate // Vile

Song: Vile Band: Invertebrate Album: Ghost Pains Location: Melbourne Date of release: 2/07/17 Genre: Melodic Post-Hardcore/Deathcore Reviewer: Michael Dixon For Fans Of: I Exalt, I, Valiance, Advocates

Invertebrate are a new Melodic Deathcore band from Melbourne, consisting of ex-members from Hands of Hope (Nathan Coff, Jarred Thorne) and Along Shorelines (Nathan Sanderson, Andy Newbigging, Sam Walsh). The music video combines both colour and black in white footage with the band playing in a log cabin. Each of the terrors that lead vocalist Nathan is confronted with (insects, black hands, a noose) represents an internal mental demon that he is trying to overcome. Cigarettes are also highlighted as a coping mechanism to deal with stress, anxiety, depression and other forms of mental illness. It’s great seeing local bands like this using their platform to raise awareness and using the visual art form of a music video to strengthen that.

Musically, this is a solid debut track. It doesn’t really bring anything new to the table with the usual heavy guitar riffs, tight breakdowns and disturbing melodic samples. The vocal parts are probably the best thing about this track as Nathan shows off a variety of different styles from harsh screams to sinister whispers and near spoken word. There is a lot of potential for this band going forward. I feel that they need to experiment a bit more and bring something fresh to proceedings, in order to set themselves apart from the many other Melodic Post-Hardcore/Deathcore bands in the local scene.

Vocals: 9.5/10 Guitars: 8/10 Bass: 7/10 Drums: 8/10 Production: 8/10 Lyrics: 8/10 Songwriting: 7/10 Personal Enjoyment: 8.5/10