VIRAL TYRANT
VIRAL TYRANT “Vultures Like You”
By Dark Starr
I'm a huge BLACK SABBATH fan. That makes me a bit of a sucker for doom. These guys deliver their brand of the genre with a lot of style, but also some surprises. At times they take it toward more extreme metal. At other points it gets a little more mainstream. Like all doom, this has a tendency to get into a groove and stay there, with change coming incrementally, yet they really do change things up. All in all, I think this should appeal to fans of bands like SLEEP and ELECTRIC WIZARD, while also stretching the envelope.
As the bass and drums get things underway on the opening "The Felling of the Doom Tree" it has almost a jazz-like vibe. The guitar comes in, followed by the vocals and we're into a killer heavy doom groove. The vocals land on the more extreme end of the spectrum. We're taken through some changes along the road, and the guitar soloing on this is so strong. The vocals on "Beloved and Beheaded" are fierce and wailing. The music is of the same doomy variety. The resulting merging has a real death metal vibe to it. It works through several interesting shifts and changes, but remains fairly constant in terms of musical territory covered.
I love the heavy, fuzz drenched guitar part that gets us going on "Vosturan." This thing covers the familiar territory, but mid-track it seems to get even more plodding than some of the other music here. "Beacon Omega" is next, and there is a regular, pulsing sound, appropriately like a beacon, at the start of it. Guitar comes in, perhaps less doomy than we've heard to this point. It's tentative at first but gains confidence as it continues. Other instruments join as this builds in a very slow and deliberate way. This eventually gets into some fairly fierce and almost frantic (you know, for doom) jamming. The vocals bring an almost hardcore punk edge at times. It gets into more standard doom zones later.
"The Great Traverse" builds up gradually with almost more of a melodic, mainstream vibe at play. It is an instrumental track that takes us into some of the most traditional metal territory of the whole set. Yet, it still has a decidedly doom flavor or accent to it. There is almost an epic scope to "A Savage Ensnared." Some vocals are spoken. Some are more sung or shouted. The song has doom elements at its core, but also has some more mainstream metal leanings. The cut is quite dynamic and gets into more traditional doom zones further down the road.
Another powerhouse doom stomper, "Blunt Force and Sheer Ignorance" has some intriguing twists and turns. It gets pretty intense and crazed at times. Yet, it also drops to a drum solo section later. That drops to near silence for a time, making the ferocity of the heavy slow doom that comes in after seem amplified even further.