Vandampire – Hope Scars
Release Date: 31st October 2025
Label: Ripcord Records
Bandcamp
Genre: Post–Metal
FFO: Old Man Gloom, Cult of Luna, Kowloon Walled City, Big Business, Neurosis, Russian Circles, Torche, Pelican, Isis, Hey Colossus.
Review By: Magnus Rotås
From South West England comes Vandampire with their debut full-length Hope Scars, a brooding and technically impressive debut that showcases a band with a clear artistic vision and plenty of potential. Fusing elements of post-metal atmosphere with sharp-edged riff work and a moody, gothic sensibility, Vandampire carve out a niche that feels both familiar and fresh with this release. My main gripe with a lot of post-metal is that the songs can be meandering a lot of the time, thankfully this is a problem Vandampire has the solution to by fusing crushing riffs with post-rock atmospherics.
Ultralow was the single of the album that got me interested to check out this album, and it confidently declares the band’s heavy, atmospheric and emotionally raw intent. The song excels in mood, texture and dynamic tension.
The following track In Ascension and the seventh track I Will Miss Everything I Forgot are interlude tracks that mix up the album and gives it some needed texture. They show that the band handles emotionally loaded, quieter moments very well. It’s just a bit sad that these are separate interlude tracks and not baked into the compositions of the songs. Except for one song, Let Ruin End Here, which is the album closer that clocks in at over 12-minutes. It’s clearly the song on the album with the strongest narrative, where you feel you are moving through a lot of different emotions. The brutal and crushing riffs contrast well with the quieter moments, and the vocals feel more intimate and vulnerable than ever on this track.
It’s hard to choose a favorite track on the album as they are all consistently good and there is no singular track that necessarily jumps out at me – most of the songs kind of blend together in my mind, like the fifth track Eaves, and the following, A Promise Main, which both have a constantly building riff of high intensity, which I very much enjoyed, and together can be seen as one of the highlights of the album for me.
For all its sonic maturity and emotive atmosphere, however, Hope Scars does fall short in one key area: memorability. Despite the tight performances and cohesive sound, there’s a noticeable absence of standout moments—no track that truly claws its way into your memory or demands a repeat listen. The album flows well, but in doing so, it occasionally feels like it’s coasting. Without clear set pieces or a big emotional payoff, Hope Scars sometimes fades into the background rather than commanding attention from start to finish.
The production of the album feels weighty, and there is a lot of respect for the rumbling low-end in the mix, my only issue is that the vocals lie buried quite deep, and I wished they had cut-through a bit more clearly.
That said, as a debut, it’s hard not to be impressed by the ambition and consistency Vandampire bring to the table. Hope Scars may not leave deep wounds, but it certainly leaves a mark—and suggests that something more definitive and unforgettable might be just around the corner for this promising band.
(3.5 / 5)
