Article By: Pat ‘Riot’ Whitaker ‡ Edited By: Leanne Ridgeway
From Hungary with Sludge, times two, comes a four-song Split EP offering from the bands HER HIGHNESS and VANTA.
Both of the bands share some unifying traits with one another, including the fact that both are duos and both are emitters of sludge/doom heaviness. There are differences, of course, as HER HIGHNESS is an instrumental entity, VANTA is not, as they incorporate vocals.
Let’s take a look, uh, and a listen, to what this pair is rendering unto us here then, shall we? We shall, by a brief synopsis of each separately… beginning with HER HIGHNESS.
This duo – bassist/noisemaker Tamás and drummer András – wields its weaponry well, using additional noise and samples inserted into their output for a greater yield. Borne on a highly dense, muddied vehicle of pure sludge, these tracks, “Catechesis Of Dirt” and “Hanged On Ganymede“, also bear a brunt of fuzz thickness to them.
The first track is quite rhythmic at its roots, it has a primal feel to it, yet quickly escalates in its tempos and advance. If anything, this is an ideal representation of the “less is more” approach, where less really is more. The latter cut, “Hanged On Ganymede“, is my favorite of the two, because anything that begins with a spoken sample of William S. Burroughs rules in my book. ‘Nuff said.
There is an immediate, noticeable shift in the overall feel of the EP, as VANTA (guitarist and vocalist Balázs Söptei and drummer Győző Mesterházy) now takes over, with “Supernova“. Stripped down, psyche vibes initialize its presence before exploding into a tumult of heavy riffs and crunchy drums. Quickly a groove is achieved, while some very alt. rock type vocals enter the mix. Where they go from here is intriguing. They soon take on a very robotic tone and calculated rhythmic delivery, eventually trading off for a guttural approach then alternating from each vocal styling thereafter.
After that killer radiated exposure, we get “Feed You To The Pigs“, another onslaught of massive guitar, groove, and hellish, semi-black metal vocals. Like its predecessor, this track also experiments with various voices, ones that run a gamut I can only compare to everything from Voivodian to Leeway-like. Yeah, I can’t say any more, you just got to hear them for yourself and form your own opinion.
What is cool about this Split EP from HER HIGHNESS and VANTA is that we have it streaming here, obviously, but it also available for streaming over at Bandcamp. There, you can snag it HERE, currently as an NYP (Name Your Price) item.
