UKDM! UKDM! UKDM! Alright, United Kingdom Death Metal isn’t really a thing. In fact, I tried to get a tag going on this site but there were just not enough bands to warrant it. There is death metal from the United Kingdom and a lot of it is really good. In the second age of death metal, there are a few truths and one of them is that good music can be almost anywhere and most likely fucking dangerous.

Vacivus is an interesting entity as the band was formed from another band Dawn of Chaos. Dawn of Chaos and Vacivus seem like worlds apart with the former being more concerned with blood and gore while Vacivus concerned with darkness and the metaphysical terror. The odd thing about the two bands is that they seem to share a common record which is Vacivus’s debut Dawn of Chaos. Rite of Ascension seems like a clean march away from the brutal death beginnings of Dawn of Chaos. Vacivus’ logo and album art is more indicative of the current trend in death metal which is skeletal, cavernous, and moody.

I understand I just spent most of this review talking about two bands which are really one. Vacivus is intriguing because it shows what currently inhabits interest with death metal versus what once engaged peoples interest with death metal. Vacivus also has the music to keep people engaged and Rite of Ascension is a fantastic redesign of death metal from a beginning which seems to have taken lace in another dimension.