(written by Islander)
Vox Nostra (Latin for “Our Voice”) is a Texas band that began to take shape in 2022, founded by vocalist Nathan Buckhoff and former bassist Jay, and then fleshed out with drummer Steven Pedini, guitarist Juan Diaz, and later guitarist Andrew Dahdouh in 2024.
They released two singles in 2023 (“Façade” and “Synthetic Womb“), and today we’re premiering a lyric video created by Scott Rudd (SR Films) for a third one, “Vita Dantis“, which we predict will appeal strongly to fans of emotionally evocative technical death metal. The band have given us this description of the song’s subject matter:
“Vita Dantis, in Latin ‘The Life of the Giver’, reflects a world where the working class is subjugated to weaponized AI by the ruling class. It’s the moment right before awareness turns into unrest.”
Left to Right: Steven Pedini (drums), Andrew Dahdouh (guitar), Juan Diaz (guitar), Nathan Buckhoff (vocals)
Lyrically (as you will see), the song describes the tyranny of biomechanical sentinels, unfeeling replicants surveilling the masses and instilling fear to coerce their obedience, and of the “wicked men casting in code” who create and control them, “Sorcerers casting spells on the runestones to create machine homunculi.”
Musically, the song explodes immediately in a fast-moving torrent of wildly veering guitars, a vividly undulating bass, weapon-like drumming, vicious snarls, and strangled screams. It creates a musical portrait of mechanistic madness, but then introduces a somewhat less frenzied motif that adds an element of bleakness in the midst of the eye-popping mayhem.
The song continues to change in rapid-fire fashion, fueled not only by blistering percussion but also remarkably fleet-fingered fretwork that causes the music to deliriously dart, fluidly swirl, brazenly pulsate, maniacally swarm, and hauntingly wail, with swift starts, stops, and startling percussive outbursts along the way.
It’s a thoroughly head-spinning experience, not only because of the top-shelf technical mastery of the instrumental performers and the savagery of the vocals, but also because of the melodic qualities of the spidery fretwork adventures, which create changing moods of derangement, fear, oppression, sorcery, and glory.
MORE CREDITS:
Session bass was composed, performed, and tracked by Aristotle Gazetas (Falling Through the Center of the Earth, Sirens, Siphoned Shit)
Production & Post-Production – Steven Pedini
Samples & Re-Amping – John Douglass (Vorticist Studios)
Mixing & Mastering – John Douglass (Vorticist Studios)
The single will be released tomorrow on all major streaming platforms, and will be available for purchase and download then as well. Below we’re also including streams of Vox Nostra’s two previous singles, “Façade” and “Synthetic Womb“.
VOX NOSTRA:
https://linktr.ee/voxnostraofficial
https://www.facebook.com/voxnostraofficial
https://www.instagram.com/voxnostratx/