(written by Islander)
The bare bones: The Philadelphia death metal band Vile Form features members of the grindcore trio Die Choking and the death/doom outfit Burden. Since forming up in 2024 they have released two EPs — Unending in 2024 and Death in early 2025 — and in the spring of last year they released a compilation of the two EPs titled Death Unending.
Now, to put some meat on the bones: The opener of the Death EP, which then became track 6 on Death Unending, is a song called “Orb“. Lyrically it pictures gleaming orbs in the sky, but they turn out to be the dreadful demon orbs of Vile Form’s eldritch entity Subulonagus, orbs that absorb life and disgorge what they consume to create a grotesque fortress.
What we have for you today is the premiere of Vile Form’s video for that song, a video that guitarist Jeffrey Daniels has described for us in detail:
Initially, we wanted to shoot a performance video with fully silhouetted shapes and forms. Nick Russo (of Full Bleed Photography) and I have worked together many times and he comes from a heavy photography background, so we shared this obsession with achieving everything in camera. There’s a tactile grit we got from the physical glass and massive lighting rigs that you just can’t replicate in post-production.
We leaned heavily into the de-saturated tones of Stanley Kubrick, specifically the high-contrast, oppressive atmosphere of Dr. Strangelove. We wanted that same sense of ‘pre-apocalyptic’ tension. We also referenced the famous Fashion photographer Horst P. Horst with our multiple reflection Mirror shot. His photograph “Muriel Maxwell Reflected Around a Column” from “Essence of the Times” is a masterclass in form, so we recreated that look as the main vocal performance shot with Paul.
The centerpiece of the shoot was the massive mirror rig that Nick built. We wanted to play with perception, using the mirrors to create tight, claustrophobic compositions that felt like a nightmare or as if the walls were closing in on the band. Nick also built a full Light Wall that illuminated behind the band for the Bright Silhouetted group performance shots. The song is relentless, so the camera work and edits had to be just as frantic and quick.
The video really is a hell of a thing to watch, and a lot of care and craft obviously contributed to its success — including the bizarre craft of vocalist/bassist Paul Herzog’s crazed facial expressions, which match up very well with the diabolical intensity of his crazed screams and murderous snarls.
As for the music, it’s as macabre as the song’s blood-congealing narrative, a constantly spinning and surprising kaleidoscope of sound. Its elaborate movements include an insidiously squirming and steadily hammering overture that creates a dismal and haunting mood, made even more haunting by the stricken wail of an early guitar solo, and that’s followed by a burst of high-speed tech-death delirium.
As the song proceeds, Vile Form inject furious percussive flurries, a thuggishly slugging bass-pulse, miserably squirming and maniacally screaming arpeggios, insectile fretwork frenzies, jolting grooves that are highly headbangable, and — most surprising of all — a fluid and mesmerizing guitar solo backed by very cool drum progressions, both of which sound jazzy and proggy.
When the song surges again and the vocals again expel their demonic madness, mind-bending chaos reigns, but Vile Form continue spinning their kaleidoscope too, with a bunch more instrumental motifs popping up in the closing minutes.
VILE FORM is:
Paul J Herzog – Vocals/Bass
Jason M Herrmann – Guitar
Jeffrey V Daniels – Guitar
Josh R Orlando – Drums
We can also share with you that Vile Form are currently finishing their debut full-length, tentatively entitled Rotten Chambers, with Colin Marston at his recently relocated == II recording studio in Mountainhome, Pennsylvania. Of course our visitors will know his name, through his performances with Dysrhythmia, Gorguts, Krallice, and more, and his engineering of numerous highly regarded albums.
Vile Form expect their debut album will be ready for release in the fall of this year, with additional live performances to coincide. To keep pace with the bands activities, and to pick up their releases so far, check out the links below.
https://vileform.bandcamp.com/
https://www.instagram.com/vile_form/