Artist: Vexed
Title: Negative Energy
Label: Napalm Records
Cat #: NPR1197DGS
Release Year: 2023
Duration: Album
Format: CD
Packaging Type: Digisleeve

In 2021, UK alt-metal outfit VEXED emerged as one of the hottest new bands to watch in heavy music - crushing anyone in their path with their disturbingly honest, highly-lauded debut, Culling Culture. The album and its tracks quickly graced Best Of lists by the likes of Revolver, Alternative Press, and Loudwire, as well as features and reviews in mags like Metal Hammer (DE) and Distorted Sound (UK), just to name a few, upon release.

On June 23, 2023, the band unleashed the album’s aggressive successor, entitled Negative Energy. Heavier and more violent, the new studio album depicts the confidence VEXED have gathered since their first release, and represents a soundtrack of brutality - chaotic, traumatic and based on the band’s most gruelling personal experiences - while exploring themes of death, betrayal, pain and grief even more critically than before. Negative Energy achieves pinnacle musicianship and gripping, profound and brave lyricism. Instead of opting for forced positivity like many of their contemporaries, the Hertfordshire four-piece channel every ounce of their Negative Energy into these 13 tracks - recharging themselves for an uphill battle. 

Haunting intro track “PTSD” sets a stage of dread for the carnage to come, building up to the all-consuming, panic-stricken lead riff of the crushing single “Anti-Fetish”. Blistering with disorderly intensity, VEXED confront the constant comparisons and ungrounded hate that bands receive. "We don’t talk about it” - featuring pitch-shifted verses emulating a disguised voice - explores childhood trauma and survivor’s guilt. “Panic attack” centers on mental health issues, representing terror and frustration through heavy riffs and grooving vocals. Furious “Lay down your flowers” (feat. Alpha Wolf vocalist Lochie Keogh) showcases extreme vocals and bombarding drums, while the disturbingly groovy following track “There’s no place like home” draws inspiration from ‘The Wizard of Oz’. The unbelievably heavy “Extremist” gets straight to the point, kicking off with fast and demanding vocal rhythms, while “Default”, on the other hand, displays multifaceted lead singer-to-watch Megan Targett’s high-soaring clean vocals juxtaposed against her menacing deep growls. This is equally evident on the standout, dynamic “Trauma Euphoria”, which also features some of the most impressive guitar work on the album. The album’s most emotional offering, “It’s Not The End”, serves as a magnificent dedication to a loved one passing away while manifesting their legacy, before sliding into instrumental interlude “DMT” - cradled by lo-fi beats with hints of 808, delivered in fresh VEXED style. The intense album finale “Nepotism” wraps up Negative Energy with a knot of rage before slowly fading out into the darkness. Negative Energy proves itself as a stunning, devastating musical conduit - ventilating the band’s pain-stricken burdens and breathing life into their fresh approach, delivered with a vengeance.

Recommended if you like: Parkway Drive, Bring Me The Horizon, Asking Alexandria, Miss May I, Motionless In White, Arrival of autumn, Defamed, DeadVectors, Half Me, Darknet, In Fear, Viscera

Track Listing:
1. PTSD
2. Anti-Fetish
3. We don't talk about it
4. X my <3 (Hope to die)
5. Panic attack
6. Lay down your flowers
7. There's no place like home
8. Extremist
9. Default
10. Trauma Euphoria
11. It's not the end
12. DMT
13. Nepotism