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VREID "The Skies Turns Black"
VREID "The Skies Turns Black"
By Dr. Abner Mality
Few are the bands as reliable and prolific as VREID. I've been following them since their very first album, when they arose from the ashes of WINDIR. Since then, they've been producing melodic black metal on a steady basis. An output like that runs the risk of being "cookie cutter", but I never got that impression from VREID. It's been about five years since their last album "Wild North West" and that's been the longest layoff in their history.
"The Skies Turn Black"certainly marks a turning point for them, as this is different than any previous album. Paradoxically, it is both their most aggressive and most melodic work at the same time. The most melodic tracks like "Loving the Dead" and "Echoes of Life" push the idea of what VREID is to the breaking point. The former is a very Gothic, almost post-punk track with very delicate female vocals courtesy of DJERV's Agnete. The latter is even more restrained and can more properly be called "gloom rock" instead of metal, with relaxed clean vocals. These two cuts take melody further into the band's sound than ever before.
In contrast, "The Second Death", "Build And Destroy" and "Smile Of Fate" are sharp-edged and aggressive, with almost thrash-like riffs and spiky harsh vocals from Sture. Most of the album's songs actually feature aspects of both speed and melody, like the opener "From These Woods", which gradually builds in intensity from a gentle piano beginning. "Chaos" and "The Earth Rumbles" also mix black metal, prog and melody into some intriguing forms.
This album features much more prominent keyboard use than past VREID albums. The instrumental "Kraken" is almost symphonic and the title track and "The Earth Rumbles" integrate keys so well into the metal framework that it startles.
"Echoes of Life" and "Loving The Dead" in themselves are not all that VREID-like, but the album is structured so well that they become a part of a greater journey, into a shadowy world that only VREID holds the key to.
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