Thechopstickdrummer
I’m back, I’m back. Yeah, yeah, I get it. What other way to punish myself for my absence than to listen to half an hour of punishing, brutal death metal shipped to me all the way from Jakarta, Indonesia? Well, the music being from abroad is actually a push for me to get back to Metal Eclipse Reviewin’. Vertiginous is the lucky band to break my brutal death metal fast; their second record, Incessant Affliction, hopefully leaving me like the unfortunate guy in the bottom-left corner of the album cover: stabbed in the back and haunted by a thousand souls. Either that, or impressed. We’ll see.
Little is known about Vertiginous beyond its two members, vocalist Jossi Bima and all-instrumentalist Hendika Dwi Prasetyo, and their mission to deliver bare-bones, brutal death metal. Bima and Prasetyo respectively play in tens of Indonesian bands each, most definitely overlapping and working together frequently. And let me tell you, they crammed five tonnes of material played at their most mindlessly heavy into a measly thirty minutes. Not one second is left to waste, and the thick, claustrophobic production–even during a common micro-break for a bass rumble or drum fill–ensures your Vertiginous-induced suffocation.
Brutal death is the band’s forte, but of their own volition, they stay put and prohibit adventuring into sister genres. Incessant Affliction is just short of full-on slam and simply too barbaric for standard technical death metal. Only a couple of times, in the latter half of the recording, does Vertiginous attempt slamming sequences, which is arguably the group at its worst thanks to the sudden bareness in atmosphere; thankfully, each succeeding song recalls the fortress of shredding I rely on like an old man and his CPAP machine. That being said, all standout tracks (or shall I say the beginning bulk) clearly possess a heightened tier of technicality: the back end of “Tortured with Endless Despair” features the most satisfying drumming of the record (more on this soon), and “Chaotic in the Weakened Reason” undergoes a time change genuinely unexpected given the duo’s habit of solidifying an immovable atmosphere.
Granted, nothing there is necessarily out of the ordinary, which effectively sums the LP up. Bima reaches subterranean gutturals, never deviating from his muddled, frog-like burps. Prasetyo, admirably, mans bass, drums, guitars, and snare. Yes, I consider the snare to be a separate instrument in Prasetyo’s case, because in the million instances where a four-count opening leads into a wall of exercise ball dribbles (“Crucified in Fate Hesitation,” for one), it’s in both great technique and good faith. His bass, when audible, grumbles. His pitch harmonics hint at a breakdown, but simply add a small pinch of flavor to BDM–a genre in dire need of spice.
Bereft of session musicians, Incessant Affliction is a prime example of how much noise two badass Indonesians can produce. I repeat, nothing on the album is executed uniquely, but consider my back stabbed and my hibernation aroused.
Label: Comatose Music
Release date: August 7trh, 2026
Website: https://www.facebook.com/vertiginousbrutal
Country: Indonesia
Score: 3.2/5.0
