Vomitron: Vapid Excellence

When I first read the name Vomitron I was expecting to once again hear one of the millions of death metal bands out there that somehow expended the time, money, and energy needed to make a band while still not managing to do anything remotely creative.

Vomitron is not one of those bands. This is technical, almost symphonic metal, and all of the music is created by one person, Peter Rutcho. The musical influences are fairly clear but also a bit unexpected. Covers of video game theme songs litter the band's myspace page and even in the original music you can tell that video games are a large part of what makes up the Vomitron sound. Not everyone will enjoy this. At times, the cheesy MIDI type instruments grind against your ears with their over processed and artificial din. You can almost sense a nauseating chemical smell because the music is so sanitized but the music is also performed flawlessly, leading me to question whether it is programmed or not. It sure sounds programmed. However, Vomitron is still heavy and fun. Fans of power metal or Super Nintendo should find something here worth listening to.

When you look at all of the "metal" versions of video game music out there you can not help but rate Vomitron based on those terms. This is the real problem with the compositions, they are excellent but they are excellent video game metal songs. The fact that Vomitron only does instrumentals helps highlight the fact that the band has nothing to say with its music. Though it is somewhat unique and well done music, Vomitron seems to fail to transcend the video game influences. While I have only heard what the band offers on its myspace page, the decisions to have more covers than originals on that page shows me that there is more ability than creativity going on here. I will still try to get ahold of Vomitron's only full length, the self titled Vomitron. It probably will not make me think, but sometimes people just like to listen to high energy fun music.

Listen to Vomitron here:

http://www.myspace.com/vomitron

I recommend listening to "The Fuck Patrol" first because as far as I can tell that is the only original song available. The band prudently abandoned myspace and you can find promises of more video game covers coming this summer on the official webpage here: http://www.vomitron665.com/

-Apteronotus