NAPALM
Following on from their 2021 debut, Culling Culture, Vexed ruthlessly amped up the vitriol on Negative Energy. This H-bomb of alt metal fury saw vocalist Megan Targett condemning abusers to the gallows with guttural urgency, bolstered by brutal djent-tinged breakdowns and scraping distortion. In their refusal to sugarcoat trauma, Vexed wrenched skeletons out of closets, drowning listeners in the resulting malice that each memory evoked. Scathingly intense, Negative Energy cemented the Hertfordshire harriers as a resolute new voice in modern metal.