Vreid - V
Indie Recordings
Melodic Black Metal
9 songs (48:33)
Release year: 2011
Vreid, Indie Recordings
Reviewed by Crash

Causing up a storm in a relatively short amount of time, the former members of Windir have put together a new band. After five albums in less than a decade later, and Vreid has built themselves a nice little niche in the black metal community. Although I am unfamiliar to their work prior to V or even with the work of Windir I had been told by many that this album would tickle my prog rock testes.

They weren’t not telling the truth. Vreid’s V is an extremely enjoyable and mostly mellow album. Wearing their influences on their sleeves, the band’s music has just as much to do with Megadeth as it does Dissection. Being that the band members’ former band was from that era it feels like an homage to the style that used to be the dominating force in black metal when harder, faster, and triggered didn’t apply. This is a good thing. Never once does the band sound too much like someone else although moments come by that are awfully close. Luckily this doesn’t go for too long before mixing up the tempo.

A lot of time is spent on the clean and melodic interludes that populate almost every song. These never sound bad and are never boring but they can sound out of place. Often times I will forget which song I am listening to and will not be reminded until it gets back to the song. Most songs pull this off well. The Sound of the River is tops with its odd verses and haunting clean vocals. Most of the time the presence of the simple but effective clean vocals are nothing less than great, but it is the harsh vocals where things can get rocky. The vocals never fail to do their purpose, but a great deal of sameness can be found in frontman Sture Dingsøyr’s scream. Luckily average is not the same thing as bad so while I wish that as much passion and variety would be put into the vocals as in the music but whatevs. It is a small thing to complain about.

The guitar playing is quite good. There are no virtuosos in the band and thank god. Expressive and un-overly technical soloing is made use of. More solos would be welcomed as the ten minute epic The Other and the Look completely slays. Ending on a positive note rather than a bleak one, I am always pleasantly surprised when a black metal isn’t afraid to use a major chord every once in a while. The riffage is kept simple as well with standard black metal fare but songs like album opener Arche make the use of it with a mosh worthy opening kick that continues to impress me every time I hear it.

I make this sound like a dull album but it is not. The focus here is on songwriting. Most of the time this pays off. Fans of a more melodic or progressive black metal will find a lot to love here. While I personally don’t think it has the kick of last years Watain or Abigail Williams albums in terms of what can be done with this sound but it is a worthy addition to any metalhead’s collection.

Killing Songs :
Arche, The Sound of the River, The Other and the Look
Crash quoted 82 / 100
Other albums by Vreid that we have reviewed:
Vreid - Wild North West reviewed by Goat and quoted 80 / 100
Vreid - Lifehunger reviewed by Goat and quoted 70 / 100
Vreid - Welcome Farewell reviewed by Goat and quoted 85 / 100
Vreid - Milorg reviewed by Charles and quoted 75 / 100
Vreid - I Krig reviewed by Alex and quoted 85 / 100
To see all 8 reviews click here
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