Metal Reviews

Just wondering if anyone else has heard this yet. I'm listening to it for the first time today (onto the second listen now, and it's sounding better on the second listen than on the first. So I shall continue) and am not entirely sure what I think of it.

The first three songs of this album are fucking great, and made me disregard what I'd just read in some reviews that made me afraid to listen to this. Then in comes Sound of the River with an annoying intro, and then all seems ok (not amazing, but still some good riffs in there) until in come the clean vocals. The introduction of the clean vocals pretty much made me listen to the rest of the album in fear every time a mellower bit hit, then cheer if they didn't come in or cringe when they did.

Two things I know for sure so far are 1) it doesn't have the same intensity and flow as Milorg, despite that it's got a few awesome tracks and 2) I really don't like the clean vocals coupled with some of the slow polyphonic bits. The clean vocals especially do not add anything to this album, and just kind of sneak up on you with the sole purpose of robbing the song of atmosphere and intensity. Like in Fire on the Mountain, which is a good song until 4:23 comes and the clean vox sap the life out of the song.

Arche, The Blood Eagle, Wolverine Bastards, Welcome to the Asylum and Then We Die are all really awesome songs. Other songs have their moments, some even great until ruined by shitty clean vox and short stints of boring stereotypical "proginess" that should never be in Vreid, but which would not be so bad without the fucking clean vocals.

In short, I hope this album is their last with clean vocals.

Other thoughts?

This band has fallen under the radar a long time ago. I am not wasting my time with it until I read a good review of it.

I bought this recently and am giving it some spins, but its my first time listening to them so havent formed an opinion yet. Right now I think it is decent, but it hasnt really moved me at any point.

If it's your first exposure to Vreid I would definitely recommend listening to Milorg! It's an excellent album (their best, imo), and I really wish they would have fed off that album's success for the newest release.

Btw, all the reviews I have read on this seem to be giving it high praises (hell, the average at MA is 100% it seems), and so far not many have taken issue with the clean vocals, so I might be in the minority there. But what was your impression of them? Did you find they fit?

It has actually grown on me. The clean vocals dont bother me, since thats more my taste anyways, and there are some really good tracks like Arche and Wolverine Bastards. Ill check out their older stuff when I get a chance, way too much to listen to right now.