REVIEW: VCTMS – Volume 5: The Hurt Collection [2023]
Artist: VCTMS
Album: Volume 5: The Hurt Collection
By now in their career, VCTMS have established a sound. When you press play on a song by the Chicago nu-metalcore quartet, you know you’re in for an emotional reckoning; a savage amalgamation of bitterness, aggression, depression and depravity. In the same breath, however, just because you know what you’re going to end up feeling doesn’t necessarily mean you know how they’re going to make you feel it. Just as much as the band have firmly established a niche, they have proven they can branch out and bring influence from across the musical spectrum into their niche—and the fifth installment in their blossoming discography, Volume 5: The Hurt Collection is perhaps their finest evidence of that to date. What begins as a pulverizing cavalcade of grooves and breakdowns, winding through a path of blistering speed and shrill shrieks culminates in oscillating waves of dark-pop tinted with raw, angsty nu-metal polished with a serene dusting of nu metalcore. On Volume 5, VCTMS prove there is very little they can’t do—and even less they can’t do damn well—with The Hurt Collection emerging as their most well-rounded, accessible-yet-mature release to date.
Admittedly, Volume 5: The Hurt Collection is probably the first VCTMS release I haven’t unabashedly and instantly loved unconditionally. While I am well in-tuned with (and in love with) their harsher side, it took a little time for me to get used to hearing the band branch out in the ways they do on songs like “Ghost//Pains” and the album’s title track. Here, percussionist and singer Meredith Henderson sings with an unsettling, eery ethereality that creeps through the listener’s ears and forces chills into their very bones. “The Hurt Collection” is especially guilty of this; as is the opening segment of “Stranger,” as both songs build into mammoth slabs of heaviness that VCTMS are all too known to peddle—while “Displacement” and “Ghost//Pains” remain every so slightly more subtle, channeling hints of post-hardcore and atmospheric metalcore like those fleeting moments heard at the conclusion of their previous record, Volume 4: Numb the Ache. These songs amplify Henderson’s role in VCTMS, lending an increased appreciation for her songwriting, lyricism and vocal prowess, as her voice easily oscillates from chilly and haunting to soaring and catchy (especially over the stuttering breakdown that draws “The Hurt Collection” to a close).
Just because VCTMS explore a spectrum of less-heavy influences at the tail end of Volume 5 doesn’t mean they don’t spend just as much—if not more—time immolating the listener with infernal grooves and punishing breakdowns. As a matter of fact, the record’s opening four-song run is probably one of the heaviest sequences VCTMS have ever brought to life, culminating in the anthemic, eviscerating and personal favorite “Feed the Vice.” Here, the band use everything they’ve perfected over their decade-plus tenure to eviscerate the listener, with skin-flaying leads that segue into sinister breakdowns with Matalone’s voice taking center stage—though of course, not without sharing the spotlight with several exceptional guest vocalists, as is the VCTMS standard. “Feed the Vice” is VCTMS’ heaviness at its most archetypal and polished—its perfect form, if you will—with the bitterness in the song’s lyrics matched only by the brooding aggression built into every chug, riff and snare hit. With that said, it certainly isn’t the only heavy cut VCTMS offer—lead single “Bitter//Pill” certainly packs a punch, as does “Liminal//Space” and “Resent//Yourself,” with the latter being instrumental in the aforementioned awe-inspiring four-song introductory run on The Hurt Collection.
VCTMS run a comprehensive gamut on Volume 5: The Hurt Collection—one that covers pulverizing brutality to simmering, smoldering agony; peerless hatred to the most bitter throughs of loss. Henderson and Matalone—with the lineup completed by bassist Evan Gillen and guitarist Mike Clampitt—have created a sprawling, all-encompassing yet mature experience that builds on the Chicago natives’ initial sound without losing it. While long-time fans of the band might find the second half of the album a marked change from the formula the band have long since offered, it ultimately shines as some of the band’s finest work yet, using dense, catchy groove as the backbone to an atmospheric, moving series of metalcore anthems—something the listener probably wouldn’t have otherwise seen coming given the beating provided by the record’s opening half.
Volume 5: The Hurt Collection is a little bit of a “grower” as far as albums go—and that’s absolutely okay, because it gives the listener that much more an excuse to dive in and explore the different ways in which VCTMS have grown from Sickness: Volume 1. While at the end of my first listen I wasn’t sure where I stood with the band’s exploration into nu metal and more alternative leanings, it take much time for those elements to become my favorite part of the band’s fifth studio release—well, okay, maybe tied for the climactic breakdown in “Feed the Vice.” Ultimately, VCTMS shine on this release, as it stands proudly as a bastion to modern metalcore and a collection of so many other styles of heavy music.
10/10
For Fans Of: Born a New, Falsifier, Invent Animate, Born of Osiris, Slipknot
Connor Welsh
