Album Review: Vile Haint – Abound with Malice

Band: Vile Haint
Title: Abound with Malice
Label: Moonlight Cypress Archetypes
Release date: May 29th 2025
Country: USA
Format reviewed: High quality digital recording

Album Review: Vile Haint – Abound with Malice via Moonlight Cypress Archetypes by Michelle

Just like in many other situations, the album cover is the first thing that quite catched my attention. The simple yet creepy and bloody sight is truly an interesting combination, especially with the way the logo looks placed in the upper middle. This alone gave me a pretty good idea about the sound of this 23 minutes long EP. Another thing I found intriguing is the way the song titles don’t match the horror-inclined album cover, instead they seem somewhat… melancholic and sorrowful, at least to me.

Just as expected, the album starts with an unsettling atmosphere, which seems to be a sample of a really old audiotape of people chanting. Much like the beginning of a horror movie, to put it simply. After this short introduction, ‘All the Shades of Red (Powdered Bones)’ starts, and it sounds just as I expected. Extremely distorted vocals, sounding almost like a distant voice calling out to you.

The song itself holds a very powerful eerie atmosphere, despite the instrumental being quite calm. If I had to link the sound of Vile Haint’s work with another artist it would most definitely be Leviathan, because of the (almost) same technique used in the vocals as the solo project. The song takes a sudden turn at around 5:40, the change being one in the tempo. It starts sounding more bouncy and lively, almost like you just switched from an artist to another. Overall, I find Vile Haint’s approach quite weird, but in a somewhat good way.

The second track seems more energetic, despite the disturbing ambience still being present. I like the fact that it takes a more rythmic technique at some point, the addition of the distant vocals only adding to the creepiness this EP holds. I may not be a big fan of the distortion of them, but I think it’s a nice touch to the chilling air surrounding Vile Haint’s work. The other tracks are quite alike in sound with each other, until the outro makes its appearance. It holds a certainly calm approach, much expected given its short length.

While I didn’t exactly get disappointed, this EP doesn’t really have the sound I usually tend to listen to. Still, I think this would be a nice work to dig into if you like the eerie, disturbing and creepy side of black metal. 7/10

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