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VULTURE’S VENGEANCE “Dust Age”
VULTURE’S VENGEANCE “Dust Age”
By Dr. Abner Mality
New Italian act VULTURE’S VENGEANCE throw their hat into the epic metal ring, hoping to follow in the footsteps of BLIND GUARDIAN, WARLORD, MANILLA ROAD and MANOWAR. Those are some mighty tough acts to follow and while VV has promise, I don’t think they can yet be mentioned with those names above.
The biggest influence here seems to be BLIND GUARDIAN by far, but a more stripped down and...ironically...less epic version of the bombastic Germans. Tony T. Steele (what else should he be called) has thin, high tones in the mode of Hansi Kursch, but not as fruity and without the multi-tracking that Hansi uses. Expect no growls or shouts here, everything is sung cleanly.
Strangely enough VV just doesn’t seem EPIC enough. There are some sweet riffs and melodies lurking within these songs and the band never indulges in typical Italian power metal ala RHAPSODY OF FIRE, but they just don’t sound HUGE. “Those Who Sold The World” and “Reign of Severance” come closest to hitting that big sound that true epic metal demands. The guys keep a speedy tempo for much of the album, mixed with stomping “marching” riffs, but they never get into thrash or blast beat territory, which is as it should be for a band of this type.
When the album should have risen to a rousing crescndo, it ends with a mediocre ballad “It Holds” and a very odd sounding track “The Foul Mighty Temple of Men”, where I’m not sure what they were aiming for. With this weak ending, “Dust Age” winds up in the “good” category, but not by much. VULTURE’S VENGEANCE should not be so timid when dealing with true epic metal.
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