Doomed Nation

Sounds For The Lost Generation

Doomed Confessionary: Iain Standing (Vacuist)

Boston, Massachusetts based post-metal/prog four piece Vacuist create an expansive, heavy-hitting sound focused foremost on songcraft and emotional resonance through abstract guitars, Escherian drums, and arty lyrics.

Vacuist’s debut album »Lacerations // Strains« was just released on July 12th, 2024. This album is about descents, despair, and everything getting worse, set to the soundtrack of immolation, shrapnel, and drowning. The nine songs on this album tell stories of deranged cowboys doomed to death, an airplane exploding mid-flight, a man becoming coral, and the cult of destruction that surrounds the oil industry.

Vacuist are Iain Standing (guitar, vocals), Mica Deposit (guitar, vocals), Stavros Aganis (bass) and Kyle Geronimo (drums).

Can you say a few words about your band?
Vacuist is a noisy metal and post-hardcore band dogmatically focused on creating songs that chronicle despair and descents by unconventional means. We’re also all sonically obsessed musicians and want every single song, both on the record and in the live space, to act as inescapable terrain.

What was the biggest challenge for the band?
Vacuist was born out of the ashes of a prior band which went through two drummers. We then wrote and recorded all of »Lacerations // Strains« ahead of our drummer at the time, Thomas, leaving. He’s playing every single one of those parts on »Lacerations« and we miss him. Now, though, we have an incredible new guy, Kyle, who’s helping us get heavier and grosser while focusing our sound to a razor’s edge.

What can you be most proud of so far?
Our album, »Lacerations // Strains«. It was a lot of hard work and required us to push ourselves further than ever before to make sure that every song was the statement we wanted.

What was your biggest regret?
Not seeing Couch Slut because my car’s tires deflated on the drive to NYC.

What was the best concert/tour so far and why?
Supporting fellow noise disciples, Miracle Blood. I feel like it was not only great getting to play with such a sick band, but also we played our asses off.

What was the biggest surprise on the music scene for you?
The Boston scene is incredibly welcoming. The amount of love and support we get from people who we genuinely look up to is incredible. I would put my name and neck on the line for a lot of the noise rock scene here in Boston. Plus they’re all incredible players.

What is currently in your heavy musical rotation?
Les Rallizes Denudes – Citta ’93, Harvey Milk – Courtesy And Good Will Toward Men, Chavez – Gone Glimmering, Cursed – II, BEDTIMEMAGIC – Sleep Together EP, High On Fire – Cometh The Storm, Frail Body – Artificial Bouquet, Sumac – The Healer, Knut – Challenger, Flower Travellin’ Band – Satori, Harms Way – Posthuman, OLD – The Musical Dimensions Of Sleastak, Great Falls – Objects Without Pain, United Nations – s/t, Deprogrammer Cult – Tactics For Manipulation, Universal Order Of Armaggedon – s/t, Sunrot – The Unfailing Rope, Trap Them – Crown Feral, Baptists – Bushcraft.

What was the best advice you’ve ever been given as a musician?
The long story short is basically to think of my performances like how an actor acts on screen.

What are your guilty pleasures?
I don’t know if I have any guilty pleasures, I don’t feel guilty about anything, and I certainly don’t feel guilty about enjoying brat summer.

Can you say something more about the music scene in Boston?
Boston has an incredible scene of heavy practitioners who are genuinely creating something exciting and wonderful from the ground up in a town that up until recently was not doing enough to protect its cultural spaces. These bands have been putting in the work and I recommend listening to every band we’ve ever played with if you want to hear some of the best underground heavy music you’ve ever heard.

Where can we see you live this year (concerts/tours)?
We’ve got a couple more known shows coming up this year. Depending on when this comes out, we’ll be playing at the Midway Cafe on August 3rd and then we’re working on a couple more shows to hopefully round out the year.

What are your plans for the future as a band?
Keep writing music, keep playing shows, keep getting heavier. And then we’re coming to a city near you.

How can people best support your band?
Buy our record, it’s on Bandcamp! If you can’t do that, follow us on Instagram and then stream »Lacerations // Strains« anywhere you possibly can.

Do you have any message for your listeners?
We hope that we make your ears bleed next show.

Links:
Website | Facebook | Instagram | Bandcamp | Spotify | YouTube

Bojan Bidovc // music enthusiast, promoter, misanthrop and sometimes a journalist as well

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