South London’s Vaermina dream up nightmare-rock with their newest release ‘Tantrum’
Vaermina share their new mini-album.
Photo: Bertek Korenek
Tantrum marks the latest release from Vaermina, an experimental art-rock trio from South London. The inherent chaos of this mini-album’s title weaves into the matter itself; the whole thing is a discordant fever dream that tip-toes on the right side of actual, listenable music. There’s clearly influence from classic horror movies here, as well as anime, video game boss battles, heavy metal and the kind of unending cacophony only dreamt up by a mind that hasn’t felt peace in weeks.
Yet there’s still some element of melody in Vaermina’s Tantrum. It’s not just noise for the sake of noise, nor one of those ‘more art than music for the casual listener’ type records. This mini album has its share of head-bang-inducing tracks and lowdown, dirgy riffs, packing the sort of crunch derived from a skull being crushed under metal heels.
Butterflies, in particular – the end to this short suite – is half wailing from the nightmarish ether, and half dragging, industrial metal. It feels like the result of some mad, 1960s American psy-ops experiment. But it also kind of works. Tracks like the gentle Irish Blessing and raucous, punky singles in Friends and Real Panic add a sense of real entropy to the selection.
Interestingly, Vaermina share their name with a fictitious deity from the video game franchise The Elder Scrolls. Within its universe, Vaermina is the Daedric prince of dreams, nightmares and psychological torment. Her own plane of existence, Quagmire, is one where unsettling dreams blend and reality forever shifts. Unpredictable to put it mildly. In that regard, this London-based band live up to their name, but with a touch more order and nuance than their potential namesake. Tantrum won’t be everyone’s cup of tea, testing the ordinary boundaries of music, but that’s not to say it doesn’t pack some ghoulish delights within.