Release Date: July 21st 2023. Record Label: Ripple Music. Formats: CD/DD/Vinyl
Vultures Like You: Tracklisting
The Felling Of The Doom Tree
Beloved and Beheaded
Vosturan
Beacon Omega
The Great Traverse
A Savage Ensnared
Blunt Force And Sheer Ignorance
Members
Dylan Fields - Guitar
Eric Wallace - Guitar/Vocals
Casey Martin - Bass/Vocals
Mitch Meidinger - Drums
Review:
Vultures Like You is the debut album from Viral Tyrant who play a Blackened style of Doom/Sludge/Thrash Metal with the band coming on a more aggressive and heavier version of High On Fire. Another surprising thing about this album is which record label is releasing the album. RIpple Music. This is one of the heaviest releases that Ripple Music have been involved with though Behold The Monolith aren't too far behind with their most recent album.
Viral Tyrant offers fifty one minutes where the creative focus of Blackened Sludge and Thrash Metal allows the band's Doom/Stoner Metal credentials to be on the more violent side of life. Though, these guys have a similar style of music to another great Portland, Oregon band, Lord Dying. Viral Tyrant injects a killer High On Fire/Motorhead riff-centric approach to their music. The vocals are harsh and quite extreme in places but they're easy to understand and follow along.
The album does have its fair share of Classic Hard Rock and Heavy Metal melodic moments but with a bleak and twisted vision that allows that Blackened Metal vision to be quite Progressive in places especially within the excellent opening track The Felling Of The Doom Tree. A song that revels in it's demonic beatdowns and massive thrash grooves. The song becomes more alive when the clean vocals appear but not letting the demonic screams fully go away into the background. The grooves are pure EVIL for the most part but there's some classic GUITAR RIFF worship that draws upon the 80's/90's Heavy Metal scenes with a killer Psychedelic Stoner sound that can be quite seedy in places when the classic FUZZ backdrop appears.
Second song Beloved And Beheaded starts with a subtle Psychedelic Groove that perhaps moves from Classic Heavy Metal to a Blackened Doom creative approach with the Sludgy vocals having a nightmarish quality to them. However, there's a menacing and gloriously "hip" sound that Viral Tyrant plays here. The instrumental work offers a "less is more" delivery but still allows the band to play some heavy brutish sounds.
Third song Vosturan shows early signs of a slightly distorted Drone based effects with the Sludgy grooves having a restricted tone and feel to the song. The atmosphere is quite solitary before the creepy soundbyte appears and a fantastic LOW & SLOW delivery that is brought into the mix. Viral Tyrant take their time here playing pure levels of Sabbathian heaviness before the harsh growls and screams leads the listener down another route. This is one of the standout tracks with Viral Tyrant playing their own original and wicked style of Blacekend Doom/Stoner Metal which can be quite Blues based with all the demonic carnage being played throughout.
Fourth song Beacon Omega has Psychedelic glitches appearing at the start with the music being part of the "Post-Doom" or "Post-Sludge" world. The thrashier elements allows this song to have a more "organic" sound with the lyrics being quite OTT and FANTASTICAL in places. The music and vocals is what holds your attention with even more sublime extended guitar solos harking back to the good old days of Thrash Metal which shows the true technical ability of the band.
The final three songs of The Great Traverse, A Savage Ensnared and Blunt Force And Sheer Ignorance allows Viral Tyrant to explore the different creative narratives of Doom, Sludge, Stoner and Thrash Metal for quite a gloomy style of music that has some epic SONIC Exploration being added for a wondrous Psychedelic sound.
This part of the album contains the heaviest and most unsettling style of music whilst still offering some first rate grooves that venture into Prog Metal and subtle extended guitar jams. The standout tracks on this part of the album have to be The Great Traverse and Blunt Force and Sheer Ignorance with Viral Tyrant moving effortlessly between the realms of Classic Heavy Metal and Modern Day Psych Metal that allows the band to offer a bleak sense of realism to their music.
Vultures Like You is an album that delivers on all fronts and one that has mass appeal for fans of the Doom, Sludge, Stoner and Thrash Metal scenes to fully embrace as one of their own. This is a refreshing and brilliantly exciting album for Viral Tyrant to make themselves known with.
Words by Steve Howe
Thanks to Purple Sage PR for the promo.
Vultures Like You is available to buy on CD/DD/Vinyl via Ripple Music from July 21st 2023.
Links:
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