Oahu’s FASTIDIUM have emerged from the Hawaiian underground with Vile Vortices, a feral dose of death metal insanity now available on cassette and digital formats through Crucial Blast.
Known for their chaotic, dissonant live sets and warped approach to extreme music, the band fuses deathgrind, d-beat, and experimental noise into something utterly unhinged.
Originally released digitally as a self-titled EP in 2024, this new physical edition includes all six EP tracks plus nearly 25 minutes of exclusive, unreleased material on the B-side – two sprawling, improvised compositions that push their sound deeper into psychedelic, doom-soaked terrain.
FASTIDIUM’s sound is a violent collision of blast-driven brutality, angular riffing, and vocal madness—equal parts technical death metal, noise rock, and psychotic freeform sludge. Featuring current and former members of projects like Burmese, the band’s lineup brings a blend of raw punk energy and sonic derangement straight out of Oahu’s darkest corners.
The Vile Vortices cassette is limited to 100 copies and comes with surreal artwork by band members Mikey and John, along with a digital download. For fans of GORGUTS, DAZZLING KILLMEN, NOOTHGRUSH, or just all-out sonic chaos, this is an essential transmission from the outer rim.
BAND STATEMENT:
“Our inspiration is centered around Death Metal, from the early to the weird, contemporary and everything in between. There’s a heavy dose of old school DM like Autopsy, Disembowelment, and Suffocation. For instance, our guitar player Eliot is very inspired by classics like MORBID ANGEL, DEMILICH, and GORGUTS. We’re pulling form the deep well of other greats of death/doom to contemporary bands like Defeated Sanity, Acausal Intrusion, and Baring Teeth. We’re also taking inspiration thanks to a mutual interest in Black Metal from its various eras. Bands like FURZE, mid-era MAYHEM, VED BUENS ENDE, DEATHSPELL OMEGA, etc…. the list goes on. But we don’t just stick to metal, we’re all very faceted in our collected musical tastes. We pull inspiration from everywhere, whether its free jazz, noise, and industrial all the way to post-punk and shoegaze. Everything is channeled from each member then distilled into this weird, demented form of death metal cacophony.
The collective resumé of the band spans through a handful of genres. Mikey our vocalist was involved in the local noise scene for years before moving the West Coast to join the band Burmese for almost a decade. Our drummer John has a solo Black Metal project VERLUST that he started after moving back from the PNW to this day. Eliot our guitar player is still shredding in the Oahu based grind band YUH and Eric our bassist currently has a stoner/sludge band called Chigurh’s Shotgun.
The history of each band member and our connections, except for our new and long-lost music brother and bassist Eric, spans over a decade. Eliot, John, and Mikey grew up on Oahu and have played in various projects that shared many same members. If you grew up in Hawai’i and were into any type of extreme music, it was hard to find other people who were also into it. So, you really had to connect with whoever you could and foster it. However, we all live our lives, some staying and some leaving but then returning to Hawai’i. Fast forward to early 2020, we all met and wanted to start some type of Death Metal project. Then when we started playing everything musically just clicked. Those old roots and connections ultimately formed a weird, unspoken musical communication. Hawai’i is obviously not a place you’d expect Death Metal or Black Metal to come from, but its here… ”
Check out FASTIDIUM “Vile Vortices” exclusively on Necrozine:
