Vulture Industries - The Dystopia Journals
Dark Essence Records

file under black/pagan metal

Roel F.: Sometimes, a fresh wind blows through Norway. As of today, this wind whispers the name of Vulture Industries. With ‘The Dystopia Journals’, this young band has proven they deserve to be called the new champions of progressive, almost symphonic, but surely melodic and splendid metal.

Vulture Industries has left the kind of metal for which Norway is famous completely behind, in favor of a more progressive and unconventional outlook. Of course, the fundament is still extreme metal, which is noticeable through the heavy guitars and the sparse death vocals. But Vulture Industries has surpassed this. The focus on ‘The Dystopia Journals’ lies with slower, but bombastic and easily digestible music, the impact of which is heightened by tasteful use of piano, violin and space-like samples. Especially the clean vocals stand out positively, and also the thought-out solos underline the notion that a lot of work has been put into this album. Nowhere does the direction the songs take sound forced; everything comes across as natural and in place.

The best comparison to this band may be Arcturus at the time they released ‘The Sham Mirrors.’ This is due to the usage of similar samples, to the clean vocals, which resemble Garm’s style very closely, and also to the vocal patterns; and of course, to the shared bombastic mode of arranging songs. ‘The Dystopia Journals’ is actually the album Arcturus should have released instead of ‘Sideshow Symphonies.’ As for the solos, they are reminiscent of those found on Enslaved’s ‘Isa.’ Forgetting about comparisons, it suffices to say that this album is highly, highly recommended.

Rating: 90/100 (details)

http://www.vulture-industries.net/