Having been active for over 15 years now, San Francisco’s VASTUM
have never failed to captivate audiences with their devastating brand of
sonically-twisted Death Metal. Their latest opus “Inward to Gethsemane” was
hands down one of the best albums of 2023 and has only further cemented the
quality of their output. Unkle Superion (Singapore) and I worked together to prepare the following questions, which were answered by founding member Leila
Abdul-Rauf (vocalist, guitarist, lyricist) who was more than happy to share her
insights.
1. What has the band been up to since the release of your excellent
album “Inward to Gethsemane”? In hindsight, are you happy with the end result?
L:
We’ve been busy working on our other projects (Mortuous, Necrot, my solo
project) both touring and working on mew releases. I’ve also been auditioning
new guitarists for Vastum since Shelby left the band right after recording
Inward to Gethsemane. Overall I’m happy with how the album came out but I would
do some things differently if given the chance. The track sequence was a
compromise for all of us and I think the album would have benefited from a
different sequence as well as the inclusion and exclusion of different songs we
had available. But it’s all something to learn from.
2. Which bands influenced the sound of Vastum and where do you draw
inspiration from on a musical level?
L: Too many to list all of them, but Dan and Kyle were a big influence when we started Vastum and got me into the Finnish bands like Convulse, Slugathor, Rippikoulou as well as a lot of death doom like Anathema, Paradise Lost (but Candlemass will always by favorite doom band). But musically I always draw from a wide array of artists from many genres, artists like Diamanda Galas and Lori Bravo (especially lyrically), Igor Stravinsky, Death, Morbid Angel, Chris Barnes-era Cannibal Corpse for riffs.
L: Not really. Quite the opposite actually, at least musically speaking. But some people struggle with the lyrics. Seems musically we’re more criticized for keeping within our formula and that we’re not “forward thinking” enough which I kind of agree with and kind of don’t, especially since we want to take the band in a more innovative direction on the next album and this was hinted at with Inward. OveralI, I think we appeal to more of the traditional death metal crowd who just want to be pummelled by the music and not fuse their death metal with other genres.
L: Religion (Christianity for Dan; I was raised Muslim), psychoanalysis, philosophy. Lyrically for this album Dan drew from philosophers like George Bataille and Lev Shestov, anti-theologian Thomas Altizer and bands like Dystopia. My lyrical inspiration mostly comes from personal experience, dreams, psychedelics and my own depraved imagination.
5. Can you tell us about the audience demographic at your shows, and
if you know about the kind of people who buy your records? In Southeast Asia
where I’m from (Singapore, specifically), a death or extreme metal show is
still largely a male affair and they want their metal anthems to chant/growl
along to.
L: It’s more diverse here for sure, but still overall male-dominant, mostly in the 25-40 age range, but that’s most metal bands I guess. More racially diverse in California where we live than other parts of the U.S. and Europe.
L: Absolutely. If you’re creative enough, you can express a full range of emotions in just about any genre, especially death metal. When people say they’re “spiritual” it’s usually spoken about in vague terms, but for me, spiritually is always something to reflect on, question, battle with, expand and redefine as necessary. That said, I do believe in the powers of magic and ritual.
L: We’ve been a band for almost 15 years with many member changes. Most of us are not young and are we’re not concerned with being the next big thing in metal. We’ve already played several bigger venues and many festivals. For me, it’s more important that we realize an authentic creative vision, to create something evocative and compelling. If that results in a bigger breakthrough for us, that’s great, but it’s never the driving force for me in doing a band.
L: I do love all of our albums in different ways. They’re all very different to me. We always play at least one or two songs from every record live. As far as which record was most enjoyable to make, our debut Carnal Law was a lot of fun to record because it all felt very fresh and unpredictable starting with a new project and not knowing how it would be received so there weren’t any expectations loaded on us. It’s also the album with my favorite artwork by Dan. I also enjoyed recording Hole Below and Orificial Purge; those albums almost seemed to write themselves.
L: Not too many of these to talk about. Dan has a reputation of being a very active front person and knows how to work up a crowd, so there is never a dull moment. Dan has injured himself in all sorts of ways stage diving when we play live. I know someone in the crowd broke their collar bone at a fest we played, which is unfortunate, but they seemed unfazed. Some woman took her top off before jumping on stage. I also lost my voice on a European tour and Dan had to cover my vocals for a show, which was strange.
L: Cruciamentum’s Obsidian Refractions, Excarnated Entity’s Mass Grave Horizon; and more recently discovered but which came out a few years ago, Staurophagia’s The Longest Dark has been an engrossing late night listen.
L: The other members of Vastum have Acephalix, Necrot, Mortuous who are all different varieties of death metal. I can’t speak to their themes, but since Dan also sings and writes all of the lyrics for Acephalix, thematically I’d say it’s within a similar vein to Vastum but they’re musically different enough that the two bands have distinct identities. I think I’m the only in Vastum whose other projects are not metal. My solo work, although I’d say it’s metal-adjacent in some ways, has historically appealed more to dark ambient fans, experimentalists and goths, even though the music is quite composed and musical, with lots of vocals. Ionophore is another long-time project of mine, an electronic, darkwave trio with 4 full-length releases, its members spread across California, New York and London. My contributions to both my solo work and Ionophore are mostly vocal-, trumpet- and synth-based. These elements have also worked their way into the last three Vastum albums and probably will continue to be.
L: Thank you! Vastum’s new lineup will likely be ready to go live by the spring. While doing some guest spots on a couple of releases, I’m also working on my fifth solo album which will have a bigger, more active and rhythmic sound than my previous work. I’ve also been playing special fly-out solo shows, with more to come later in the year as well.