I’ve had Vntrve, the seventh album from Norwegian grindcore weirdos Beaten to Death, for a couple months now and I’m no closer to understanding it than when the promo first landed in my inbox. Over the course of 13 songs, Beaten to Death trudge through blast beats, razor-sharp riffs, breakdowns, party samples and a general sense of extreme irreverence.
Naturally, Decibel had to get the scoop on what makes the band tick, so Beaten to Death’s Anti-Climax and Tommy Hjelm filled us in on 10 songs that influenced Vntrve, out on October 23 via Mas-Kina Recordings.
Slayer – “Disciple”
Tommy: We’d built this major tip of the hat for the opening of Slayer’s Disciple on ‘Slosspit.’ But when Joddski, one of the granddads of Norwegian hip-hop, put his vocals on top, all of that just drowned, and it was too good to change. If you listen carefully though, you can hear some fairly unapologetic references to “Disciple” both in the start and in the end of that song.
Mahavishnu Orchestra – “The Dance of Maya”
Tommy: I came across this song on a documentary on Billy Cobham. That opening riff. Wow. And then the drums come in. Wow. And then they turn it into this boogie theme. Yuck. Then they transition back into the opening riff again. Wow. The second riff of “Slosspit” had a ring to it that reminded me of this song. The riff after that sounded like a run-of-the-mill Testament riff. That’s why the work title for “Slosspit” was “Mahavishnu Testament.”
Death – “Spiritual Healing”
Tommy: If you managed to listen to Vntrve and not spot this reference, then you hate Chuck Schuldiner and you hate death metal. And then you can go fuck yourself! Obviously we’re not shy to show off our heroes. I love this reference, it’s so blatant. And yet, we’ve managed to make it even more death than Death. What do I mean? You find out.
Pantera – “Walk “
Tommy: Under normal circumstances, I would never put this up as an inspiration, mostly because it’s so obvious and there are few things that annoy me more than all these Dimebag wannabes lamenting his death, while shooting Jack Daniels, putting “Walk” on 11 on the speakers and screaming RE! SPECT! As it turns out “Scroll On, Homeboy” is brimful of Pantera references, discussing what would happen if Phil Anselmo grew up during the social media era. There wouldn’t be no “Walk” then, I’ll tell ya.
KPop Demon Hunters – “Soda Pop “
Tommy: Should we put up “Soda Pop” or should we put up “Satan Spawn, The Caco Daemon” by Deicide? Let’s put up the less obvious one. Guess what was our inspiration for “Satan Spawn, The KPop Daemon?” Fun fact: two of our children wrote the lyrics for this song. We are so meta, it hurts.
My Dying Bride – “The Whore, The Cook and the Mother”
Tommy: Controversial statement: 34.788%… Complete is MDB’s best album! Yeah, I know Turn Loose The Swans is more trve, but I think they captured something quite angsty and uncomfortable on 34 that fit MDB perfectly. Sales indicated not, and soon enough they were back in the middle ages.
Immortal – “Grim and Frostbitten Kingdoms”
Anti-Climax: Finally, my party trick from the mid-90s of imitating Abbath Doom Occultas vocals on “Grim and Frostbitten Kingdoms” came to use in a song. When we wrote the tune “Sunburnt Satanist,” the voice of our Nördic, translucent-skinned black metal anti-hero, Jonas needed my old party antics.
“Sunburnt Satanist” chronicles the duality of trve kvlt black metal life; how do you both adhere to the ways of winter demons and at the same time respond to the holiday call of the flesh-licking, satanic summer sun? You might think we are taking the piss here, but no, the vocals are a heartfelt tribute to Immortal. In particular it’s a tip of the hat to Battles In The North, which is a metal masterpiece, in my eyes. Their songwriting on this album is impeccable and Abbath’s drumming is completely bonkers. It sounds like he is just rolling downhill with his drum kit, but I wouldn’t want it any other way. This album is so punk! And I LOVE the lyrics to “Grim and Frostbitten Kingdoms.” After Battles In The North, they got a proper drummer and started sounding more like a normal band, so I kinda lost interest.
Exodus – “Bonded by Blood”
Anti-Climax: As Tommy already mentioned, we keep blatantly referencing our heroes in our songs. “Bonded by Blood” shows up in a song about trying to suppress your battle vest personality in your salary man daily life. This is never a good idea. The battle vest will prevail.
Thrash metal was one of my first loves in heavy music, and as I grow older I spend more time thinking of the long-gone days of youthful headbanging to, among others, Exodus. This has led me to spice up our last couple of albums with more thrash metal and crossover-leaning vocals. I have to admit that Paul Baloff never was a favorite vocalist of mine though. Still, the mediocrity of his vocals doesn’t matter, as the riffs and the chorus of “Bonded by Blood” stand strong no matter what.
MURDER IN THE FRONT ROW! CROWD BEGINS TO BANG! AND THERE’S BLOOD UPON THE STAGE! BANG YOUR HEAD AGAINST THE STAGE! AND METAL TAKES IT’S PRICE! BONDED BY BLOOD!
Brutal Truth – “Denial Of Existence”
Anti-Climax: I would not be a grindcore vocalist if it wasn’t for Brutal Truth and Kevin Sharp. He is my spirit animal. His low-pitch/high-pitch screaming combo has stood the test of time. I think we have used it to some extent on every Beaten To Death album. On Vntrve, this is very obvious in the song “Fear Of Being Included.” When it’s time to record vocals, I always summon the powers of Kevin Sharp in the ‘90s.
Opus – “Live is Life”
Anti-Climax: Opus was an Austrian ‘80s one hit wonder. This earworm of a song has snuck its way into the subconscious of most people on this planet. At least if you’ve attained unc status
like we have. The misinterpretation of the title and chorus as “life is life” is a perfect quote for the passivity and fatalism that strikes most of us at times when being soaked in the constant downpour of pure evil and enshittification of reality. So, when we set out to create the song “The Tolerator,” which is meant to be an embodiment of our collective favorite meme, the “this is fine” dog, we just had to add the misinterpreted Opus chorus to the outro. Life sucks, Opus fucks.
