VIRCOLAC
VIRCOLAC “Veneration”
By Dr. Abner Mality
Hailing from the misty isle of Ireland, we now have VIRCOLAC, a band obsessed with the ancient past. Although my promo copy had some bumps in the road, the quality of "Veneration" manages to rise to the occasion.
This is the kind of thinking man’s death metal that’s well constructed and able to create a mood. The album is designed as a respectful look at men of the distant past and how they worshipped. And it really does conjure that feeling of ancientness throughout the album. After the female vocal showcase “The Lament” starts things in a mournful, folky way, the rest of the album is a deep dive into death metal that is not “technical” at all, yet which constantly seems to morph from riff to riff, mood to mood. Each song is a bit of a journey. Even the shortest track “All Comes To Pass, Nothing Shall Remain” is far from an afterthought...it’s one of the strongest here. And the long tracks like “Our Burden of Stone on Bone” and “She Is Calling Me” are given time to really roam and sink in deep. Yet they seem to go by quicker than their actual length. That’s the sign of good songwriting.
Ironically, the twice-repeated track “Unrepentant” is the simplest...a pure battering ram of war-like aggression. Honestly, I wish I could have heard the missing cut that should have been on the record. Yet enough remains of VIRCOLAC for me to give them a high endorsement. They remind me somewhat of fellow Irishmen PRIMORDIAL in the way they summon up the spirit of the past, but I daresay they are more primal and full blooded. Definitely a record to venerate!