Vape Warlök Premiere “Satan’s Succubus” Video; …And His Skull Shall Make My Bong Out April 20
If the stink off your sweaty belly-button lint could be a sound, would it not be Vape Warlök? The must-be-this-stoned-to-ride Los Angeles sludge absurdity-worship outfit are gearing up for the April 20 release of their awaited full-length debut, …And His Skull Shall Make My Bong. Comprised of five tracks that are no doubt correspondingly rife with Cimmerian-style declaratives and running a light-on-mercy 41 minutes, the album unfolds like the darkest, most lurching moments of Sleepytime Gorilla Museum if their arthouse fare had been tainted by not the drugs from real life, but the drugs from after school specials in the early 1990s, keeping one foot firmly in the ridiculous and the other on your throat, sonically speaking, forever.
Vocals are indecipherable save for the early going of 11-minute closer “Bongmaster General,” the nod is all-consuming, and nary a fuck is given when it’s time to throw open the doors for the synth solo in “Satanalingus: The Devil’s Tongue,” which opens side B. As a whole work, it is gloriously dumb — even more so on headphones — massive in its lurch, and misanthropic; not a gritty reboot of Electric Wizard, but a logical extrapolation of some of what that band’s nasty ’90s era brought to doom in the first place, which I guess is the sense that somebody very, very stoned is about to stab you.
I suppose that in stylistic terms, one might consider Vape Warlök bong metal for their over-the-top, all-in take on stoner tropes and skull-powdering tonal heft, but it matters less when “Satan’s Succubus” (video premiering below) moves on from its sampled classic-horror trailer setup into the chug itself. No, they’re not fucking subtle. “Satan’s Succubus” grows atmospheric in its first verse, introducing the rasp of guitarist/synthesist The Count — bassist The Duchess adds vocals as well, I’m not sure where, and drummer The Baron also contributes samples — which becomes a defining element of the album as a whole, and setting up the blend of ultra-low distortion and floatier synth that feels distinctive even in a world where Mammoth Weed Wizard Bastard once roamed.
Vape Warlök have a not entirely dissimilar instrumental mindset, but the harshness of the vocals everywhere but in the aforementioned first verse of “Bongmaster General” is purposeful and an essential part of the character of the band.
That is, it’s not just screaming to cover for someone’s lack of confidence in their melodic range. It’s part of the world being built in the songs.
And that world is a place so dark it’s almost too hard to see for it to be ethereal. And who even knows what’s on the ground being scorched? The lumber turns into a slam on “…And His Skull Shall Make My Bong,” which is delightfully filthy and despite being set largely to a single slow-motion march has room for a max-yuckface metal breakdown later on and a guitar solo that seems to be making fun of itself even as it goes. Noise and blearly-eyed ritual ensues, which if Vape Warlök were going to put a sticker outside the LP, would be a candidate for a flag to fly.
The title-track starts heavy and gets heavier, and I’m pretty sure the bit about drugs at the start of “Meth Slave” — as opposed to the bit about drugs at the start of any of the other songs; by “bit” I mean sample, apparently — comes from The State, which, if true, would be enough on its own to put …And His Skull Shall Make My Bong on my dude-of-a-certain-age demographic radar, but charm isn’t in short supply elsewhere, coming through, not so much in spite of the filth surrounding, but like the gorilla flinging it at you, reveling in it and having a damn good time even if you need new clothes as a result.
Vape Warlök are superlatively heavy, and obviously the call not to take …And His Skull Shall Make My Bong too seriously is resonant from the skullbong blacklight poster artwork on through the murky psychedelia of the “Satan’s Succubus” video and the grueling chicanery that ensues from the opener onward. At the same time, Vape Warlök aren’t so easy to discount as being just-fuckery. That there would be an awareness of their place in the genre isn’t a surprise — they’re veteran players, just with fun nicknames — but while Vape Warlök prioritize the crushing and the caustic with a tectonic weight-of-riff, they’re still basically party metal.
I mean, don’t tell anybody, right? Don’t tell anybody where the party is, because there might be a human sacrifice later — no virgin, they canceled — and at the very least everybody’s gonna dump the little pilly bits out of the plastic capsules or just crush up their meds, mix it all in a bowl, snort it and see what happens, and they don’t want the cops to show up. Like Desert Sessions, but stunk like death-adjacence. Not saying it’s going to be a violent orgy, but definitely not not saying it either.
Debut album of the year? Debut album of the blegh.
Middle fingers up, kids. This is a good one. PR wire info follows the clip below. Please enjoy:
Vape Warlök, “Satan’s Succubus” video premiere
Preorder link: https://vapewarlok.bandcamp.com/album/and-his-skull-shall-make-my-bong
The lead-off track from VW’s first full-length “… And His Skull Shall Make My Bong”
Like a C.H.U.D. from the sewer, vile dumpster-doomsters Vape Warlök emerge under cover of darkness to spread their slime-slathered terror, violating the minds and hearts of all who dare listen to the infrasonic molasses-riffs oozing from the devil’s boom box speakers.
And so it is with “Satan’s Succubus,” the lead-off track and first single/video from the California trio’s forthcoming long-player …And His Skull Shall Make My Bong. At 66.6 beats per minute, this unrelenting cauldon of primitive riffs and acrid demon-yowls is like RU-486 for your ears, purging all that is pure and good from your body and filling the husk that’s left with bongwater, sex juices, and sin.
Comprising members of Unida, High Priestess, and Circle of Sighs, Vape Warlök takes no solace in subtlety, complexity, or production values. These are dirt-stupid riffs tuned lower than imaginable, played slower than imaginable, and presented with the fidelity of a sewer main exploding during a mudslide. If you’ve come here for good taste, you’re in the wrong place. But if you like no bullshit Satan-coded stoner-sludge-doom that meets at the fork of the two Dopes (to wit …smoker and …throne) then this just might be your shit.
…And His Skull Shall Make My Bong. There is no hope, only doom.
Streaming, download, and physical media arrive on April 20, 2025.
VAPE WARLÖK IS
THE COUNT (Collyn McCoy) – Guitar, Vox, Synths
THE BARON (Phillip Rodriquez) – Drums, Samples
THE DUCHESS (Mariana Fiel) – Bass, Vox
