Retro Recommendation: Vital Remains - Into Cold Darkness

Once a week I'll turn the blog over to Dan Marsicano for his Retro Recommendation, giving you a chance to learn about underrated and overlooked gems from metal's past.  This week Vital Remains is in the spotlight.

Vital Remains will always be linked to the Dechristianize and Icons of Evil albums, due to the involvement of vocalist Glen Benton of Deicide fame. Their popularity increased tenfold as a result of Benton lending his trademark voice, though many have failed to give credit to their earlier material. When Benton joined the fray in 2003, Vital Remains had been around for almost 15 years. This week's Retro Recommendation is going to take a closer peek at 1995's Into Cold Darkness, an album that predates not only Benton, but guitarist Dave Suzuki as well.

The lineup may be different on the band's sophomore album, but the message remains the same as it did a decade later. Satan, the death of Christ, souls thrown to the wolves, burning flesh: sounds familiar, doesn't it? Vocalist Jeff Gruslin offers a more coherent alternative to Benton's deep, nonsensical growls. You can actually understand what Gruslin is saying, and while he lacks the power of Benton, he is a much better at articulating every blasphemous word.

The music on here is concise and lacks the repetitive nature of the Benton albums. The only "epics" are placed back-to-back in the beginning. "Immortal Crusade" is a nine-minute opus that starts with an ominous chiming of bells and ends with a sickening slab of brutal death metal that makes Nile seem tame by comparison. "Under The Moon's Fog" uses samples of a thunderstorm, wolves howling, and a light keyboard melody to engulf the listener in the cold atmosphere.

If there is one thing that the early work of Vital Remains has that is lacking during the Benton era, it's atmosphere. Even on the songs that barely grace the four-minute mark, the band knew how to built ambience and mood with minimal use of outside influences. "Descent Into Hell" is a relatively-simplistic number that is given extra weight by the screams of pain and torment as they enter into the fiery abyss of Hell. It's a chilling start that leaves behind a frosty residue.

While indulgence permeated songs like "Icons of Evil" and "Entwined By Vengeance," Vital Remains shows great restraint on Into Cold Darkness. The title track is explosive and unrelenting, yet the guitar solo is brief and hardly a factor. The rest of the instrumental work follows suit, avoiding extended leads and unnecessary guitar wanking. What makes this album significant is that it was one of the last to show actual chemistry between the band members. After this album, it became the "Dave Suzuki Power Hour," as he would play pretty much every instrument on studio albums from here on in.

Into Cold Darkness is a fantastic snapshot of '90s death metal. The production is a little tame, but at least it isn't processed or mechanical like much of death metal today. The band hardly acknowledges this album, especially at live shows. They haven't played a song from this album in a long time, making their sophomore album a forgotten gem that deserves more attention than it has received by fans and critics. For proving that Vital Remains didn't need epic songs or Benton to formulate the perfect sonic vision of hell, Into Cold Darkness gets the nod for this week's Retro Recommendation.