While I do enjoy 'Vae Solis' it is however one record that's quite hard to describe due to its experimental and mostly original sound. Random bits of thrash can be found, twisted ass weirdness that reminds of early Swans (I'll just assume you've heard Filth), pounding drum beats, repetitive doomy heaviness, freaky synths, pulsing bass, samples galore and industrial metal vibes fairly similar to Godflesh (and other early industrial metal bands), which is fitting since Justin Broadrick played guitar on this album. Nik Bullen's vocals are all over the place too; sometimes simply speaking while other times shouting and it seems on various occasions effects are placed on his voice too. Interestingly the album seems to start out rather powerful, but slowly gets calmer and as you near the final songs things really start to chill out a bit towards ambient experimentalism.
In description is just sounds like a bunch of crap that doesn't work and maybe it doesn't, but the album holds some sort of sedative quality to it that just seems to grab a hold on me every time I toss it on the turntable. There's a sense or urgency and anger on the early songs, but by the time you reach the sixth song, 'Thoughts of Escape' it feels like things begin to move in a darker relaxed direction. 'On Ice - Heavy Blood' offers up more noticeably melodic synths, throbbing bass guitar and clear singing, which may be an indication of where Scorn went from this album. By the time, 'To End' is finishing up its just pure spacey ambiance.
In the end I have no idea how to precisely talk about, 'Vae Solis,' which means this is sort of a bullshit review, but in all seriousness this is an interesting album that will either blow you over with awesomeness or just bore you to death. I'm somewhere in the middle. Hypnotic stuff, for sure!
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