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UK death metal is in rude health, and Profound Lore have been attentively keeping their ears to the scabrous underbelly of the British scene as a means to discover future torchbearers. Their latest signing is Vacivus, a five-piece comprised of seasoned musicians schooled in the dark arts of the masters – particularly Morbid Angel’s arcane rites – and clearly eager to compete in chaos with the likes of Lvcifyre, Grave Miasma and Dead Congregation. Their first full-length will surely put them on the same negative plane as their contemporaries. The summoning of old and new-school influences here is faultless; Vacivus’s focus on constructing punishing riffs rarely succumbs to cob-webbed atmospheric sojourns. As a result, this single-minded approach keeps the devastation levels in the red – fundamental when spawning scorched-earth, riff-driven death metal.