Album review: Vended – Vended

Earlier this week, Vended frontman Griffin Taylor told us that often interviewers “think that we’re little kids just being little shits” (he definitely didn’t mean Kerrang!, we should stress). It’s what the song Disparager is about – an almighty metal rager on the band’s new album that hears the vocalist criticise modern-day journalism, and how the press expect Griffin and his bandmates to be a certain way.

This record should, well, set the record straight. Because while the Des Moines five-piece – completed by guitarists Cole Espeland and Connor Grodzicki, bassist Jeremiah Pugh and drummer Simon Crahan – have been carrying a certain amount of baggage around with them due to their age and famous dads, on this assured self-titled debut it’s all about maturing and becoming more than just ‘that young Iowa band featuring two sons of Slipknot’. “Little kids,” these really ain’t.

That’s not to say those prior ’Knot references aren’t just. But is being compared to one of heavy music’s best-ever bands anything other than a bloody great proposition? Duh, of course not. Working without a click track and self-releasing the whole thing, there’s a swagger that Vended exude across this first full-length, channelling the bullish spirit of their fathers back in the day but expressing their own personalities at the same time.

Naturally, Griffin is the most attention-grabbing at first, from his unmistakable roars to authentic lyrics about anxiety, depression, panic attacks, and even the pressures of wanting to be great in this industry (‘Longevity / Nothing short of false starts and legacy / I don’t wanna let you down, confessedly’).

But this is a true band, and across 13 songs Vended play their part. Paint The Skin and Am I The Only One are all-out metal attacks, while the stomping Downfall gives Simon his chance to shine and includes a ‘Fuck you’ mosh call midway through two minutes of head-banging fury. There’s even some interesting interludes – particularly the strangely uplifting Going Up – among the chaos, giving you the sense of a vision truly realised.

So yeah, it’s clear that Vended aren’t kids anymore. They’re their own thing, with a mission statement of “world domination”. Whether or not they reach those lofty ambitions of course remains to be seen, but for now, this first go is positively deadly.

Verdict: 4/5

For fans of: Slipknot, Graphic Nature, King 810

Vended is out now

Read this: Vended’s Griffin Taylor: The 10 songs that changed my life