Sunday 1 November 2020

Vessel Of Light - The Last Ride (Album Review)


Release date: October 23rd 2020. Label: Nomad Eel Records. Format: Cassette/DD

The Last Ride – Tracklisting

1.Last Ride 03:38
2.Disappearing Pact 04:15
3.Torture King 05:27 
4.Carving Station 04:24
5.There's No Escape 04:17
6.Web of Death 03:01
7.Awaken in Dreams 03:50
8.Voices of The Dead 04:28
9.In The Silence 04:20
10.The Death of Innocence 03:54


Members

Nathan Opposition – Vocals
Dan Lorenzo – Guitars
Ron Lipnicki – Drums
Jimmy Schulman – Bass


Review

Doom/Grunge Rockers Vessel Of Light return with their 3rd album Last Ride and it sees the band continue their journey to a more modern Doom Metal feel with flashes of Grunge, Stoner Metal and Hard Rock embedded within the confinements and structure of the entire album. There are no flashy gimmicks or ideas on this album. Just good old fashioned talent and superb song-writing skills shining through from beginning to end and the vocals ain’t bad either.

The album starts off with the title track – Last Ride – and the song offers a gloomy style of riffs that moulds the classic Doom based energy of Black Sabbath with an Alice In Chains storytelling influence heard within the lyrics and Nathan’s vocals having a healthy “Grunge” approach. The music is consistently “evil” with Vessel Of Light being on more inspired and confident form compared to their last record and I’m a huge admirer of their previous album.

Second song – Disappearing Pact – continues with their stylish Doom/Grunge/Stoner Metal approach settling down for a more emotional core and that’s down to the fantastic lyrics the band have written for this song. The song is played a cool pace with the band taking their time with song but a flashy Hard Rock guitar solo comes out of nowhere which show that Vessel Of Light are willing to have fun with their own music whilst remaining true to their Doom Metal beliefs and values.

Third song – Torture Song – is perhaps the most Aggressive and Doom based offering the band have written yet and reminds myself of Ancient VVisdom on certain parts of the song. The band do go for a more theatrical style of delivery with this song but it’s quite claustrophobic and cinematic in places.

The album contains 10 songs overall and the opening 3 songs shows you what Vessel Of Light are aiming for with this release and that’s their most grown-up and mature release to date. The band feel more comfortable with their surroundings on this record and they have a meaner and devilish attitude compared to their recent albums.

The Last Ride is the most complete album yet from the guys but knowing Vessel Of Light they’re probably already planning ideas for Albums 4 & 5. As the band don’t like to be out of the game for long. This album arrived almost exactly a year since they released their last album.

Whatever the guys have planned for the future, Vessel Of Light have written a great collection of songs with this album and there are some real headbanging gems here such as: Carving Station, Web Of Death, Voices Of The Dead and The Death Of Innocence.

Excellent and Highly Recommended.

Words by Steve Howe

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