Vesseles – Home
Release Date: 16th January 2026
Label: Self Released
Bandcamp
Genre: Black Metal, Atmospheric Black Metal, Depressive Black Metal, Symphonic Black Metal.
FFO: Dimmu Borgir, Imperial Triumphant & Cradle Of Filth.
Review By: Ross Bowie
Vesseles formed back in 2023 and are already back with their sophomore album, Home. A beautifully majestic yet punishingly heavy affair, as across the album’s 9 tracks the band tell the story of a demon cast into the human world. Dealing with themes of survival, transformation and reclaiming power. The band have taken everything they learned from their debut and dialled it up to the max.
Vesseles waste no time setting their stall out early, Home opens with a beautiful symphonic intro with the violins just as vital as the blackened tremolo guitar riffs before what can only be described as the gates of hell bursting open, as the screeched vocal pierces through all the beauty letting you know this is about to be an album of contrast, dark and light, and can the band juggle these two elements seamlessly across an entire record. By the time the second track, Eternally With Us hits, you quickly learn that, yes, as much as this is a black metal record, it’s the piano who is at the top of the table and dictating the surrounding chaos. Every song utilises the piano excellently. Pianos are often used to add some balance and beauty amongst the evil of black metal, but not here. Vesseles more often than not deploy the keys is a messed-up discordant turn that creates so much tension through the discordant mashing of keys and wrong notes. It’s the musical equivalent of walking into an open area in a game as you’re waiting for the boss battle to commence.
However, it’s not just the piano that sounds like it was ripped from the floor of Hell, the way the band use their vocals is extremely effective. It isn’t just your standard black metal screech, but that is here in abundance. The layering of growls of the high-pitched screams, the more pitched screams towards the end and the sparing use of clean vocals all come together with the themes of Home, perfectly letting the listener know how the demon’s journey is fairing. The Beneath has another dramatic intro with swelling strings and keys before the guitarist’s bursts into life like Animal in The Muppets trying to hold back his drum fills. While the guitar is rarely the key component it adds so much across the album and when you need those heavy breaks amidst all the orchestration it’s always right there to pack a punch.
The only thing that lets Home down is their drum sound. While everything else is incredibly produced without losing any of the dirt under the fingernails, the drums often sound flat and programmed rather than ram shackling alongside the rest of the compositions. I’m not sure what the stylistic choice was here but, on an album, full of triumphs and paid off risks, this is the one glaring chink in Vesseles armour. This isn’t to take away from the ability of Nick Brown as he blasts all over these 9 tracks, but the production is a strange choice against everything else.
While it would be easy for Home to fall in to a groove and coast in the latter half of the album, the band are constantly experimenting and adding yet more strings to their bow. The title track is the first use of clean vocals, which offer such a different flavour from everything before, that it grabs your attention and refuses to shake it. But the albums swansong of This Is Not Home uses these vocals perfectly. The album has been menacing and downright evil until now, but when those clean vocals kick in during the last track, it ties the entire album together. It’s the peace amongst the chaos and the light at the end of the tunnel. It inspires so much hope when the vocals lift everything around them up. This is while you have a sombre piano running wild in the background and the best guitar chugs of the entire record. Vesseles were able to capture every theme and nuance of Home and wrap everything up in a perfect conclusion to all the has been laid bare before it.
Home is a massive leap in quality from where the band was on their debut and has all the positive signs of a band moving in the right direction; fearless, risk taking and not scared to swing for the fences. A 9-track story of a demon being cast into a world it knows nothing of and leaving you with a smile on your face. It could only be black metal.
(4.5 / 5)
