 |
| ||||||||||||||||
|
|||||||||||||||||
| - | |||||||||||||||||
| Review | |||||||||||||||||
|
Black Future will more then likely be the first album most people pick up by the Progressive Thrash act Vektor, not having picked up the independently released debut album Demolition before it. This was the case here, having never heard of this band until recently. It's a shame that this band did not really find a home prior to this release if what can be found here is any indication of their past. Vektor bring in an intense Thrash sound that makes the listener feel helpless and if everything were black, like there's no sun to ever be found. Given the science fiction nature of the band, this feeling is quite appropriate. The overall feeling of the music on the album really does capture the artwork for this release well, leaving the listener blanketed in a sci-fi world full of darkness and chaos. Right from the start the album just grabs you and starts attacking you with intense guitar riffs and vocals that aren't typical for a Thrash release, but really work out much better for this album. Instead of your traditional rhaspy shouting, you're given a scratchy, sandpaper-like Black Metal vocal style that sometimes will go into a high falsetto for maybe one or two words. The best comparison one can make is to say that sometimes you could confuse the band's singer, David Disanto, with Dani Filth from Cradle of Filth. The only problem with this is that, as stated, the higher falsetto's are only one word max, and really just seem to come in at random throughout the album. While this doesn't do anything to harm the album, it just would have been better utilized with a little more structure like with "Accelerating Universe" which finds there to be a more rhythmic pattern to this in the first verse alone. But, really, it's the music on Black Future that is key, and not just the vocals. By the time you hit "Destroying the Cosmos", you won't even care about the random falsettos, as you'll be more in awe at the amazing musicianship this band has, especially with the insane guitar solo that comes at the end of this song. While the track itself is mind melting enough with a flurry of intense guitars and drums that old-school Thrash fans will eat up, the solo really completes the song, being highly technical at such a high velocity, you just can't help but let your jaw drop even after the haunting introduction to "Forests of Legend" kick in. Aside the long track lengths on "Forsts of Legend", "Dark Nebula" and "Accelerating Universe", these haunting, almost dismal moments of the album are really the only times that the Progressive element of the band's music comes into play, and it really does enhance the sound of the album greatly and are often used with care. Sometimes the song will slow down right in the middle for one of these moments, but it's typically at a key moment in the music, or after an intense guitar solo. Otherwise, like with "Forests of Legend", they adorn the beginning and/or the ending of the song, but are done well enough that it doesn't just come off as a way for the band to extend the length of the song and come off as a bit artsy. The latter two tracks are really the most Progressive out of them all and really where the band shines. The sci-fi atmosphere of this act really shows through here starting with "Dark Nebula". Aside the typical Progressive music change ups that happen through the track, Vektor also incorporates some haunting, astral-like keyboards that you would expect to appear in a cheesy b-movie when an alien ship is landing, as well as some guitars that, in essence, come off more as a glorious feel then anything, as if they had just survived a war with the beings in said alien ship. This makes up a greater part of the end to the song, and really the only time on the album that doesn't give off an "all hope lost" vibe, and becomes a welcome breath against the brutality of every track before it. The last song on here is the most Progressive of them all, mostly due to an overextended instrumental section after maybe a third of "Accelerating Universe" has passed. This song in itself is actually a little odd as it also seems to incorporate some slight Black Metal influence in the guitar riffs briefly here and there, but most noticably at the end of that long instrumental section for a brief period before the Thrash builds right back up and tears your face off again. Black Future is simply a menacing, evil little album. Between blistering music and the overall ominous feeling you get when it's combined with the menacing and evil sounding vocals, it's hard to sit there and say it had no impact on you. Vektor have put together one hell of album that any Thrash fan is going to enjoy, and really raises the bar for the style as well. Sure there's a few small issues here and there, such as the use of falsettos at random times and the long instrumental during "Accelerating Universe", but those could be easily overlooked for the sheer talent this band brings to the table, especially when you hear any guitar solo on the album as they leave you bowing down and almost allowing that section to on just a little too long. Either way, Black Future is a must have band, and it's creators, Vektor, are a band to keep a very close eye on as there is obviously still more growth that this band can do. |
|||||||||||||||||
| - | |
 |
|