Where in the past Vimur has often struck me as more of a blackened death metal band, their new album churns with more anger and darkness to convince me of their allegiance to black metal. They hit you with a storm of furious guitars and malicious pounding, but as with most extreme metal no matter than genre it falls I would normally find myself asking "Ok , but can you write a song?" , but their last album I gave a 9 out of 10, thus the question becomes , how consistent are they as signwriting? A question no without merit considering how they title track that follows pours on even more speed. With this is the more typical blasting I expect from every run of the mill black metal band. Black metal that excels and has staying power, might use these tropes as tools but sculpts sounds that are uniquely theirs's with them. Sure you can play really fast, but that is less than impressive when every other black metal band in my in-box can do that.
What catches my attention are more memorable riffs like the one that opens "Infallible Contra Animus". The vocals dip down into more of a growl and guitars ride on with a triumphant gallop not unlike the kind Immortal used to employ. But once again things get mired down in becoming a blasting speed fest. This is a prime example of the motto here, "cool riffs alone does not a good song make. While that riff started strong, if they just rely on feral blasting power , things become sonically monochrome and begin to bore me. There are a few melodic chords that end the song, but by then it is too little too late. "Emanations from the Sun Behind the Sun" seems eager to fall into the same speed trap Perhaps if they dialed things back 20 bpms it would have been deliberate enough to make some of these ideas count more. As there is a melody that wants to emanate from behind the buzz they a churning , but all too often becomes a blur. To their credit there is one riff in this one that has more of a classic metal feel, but that riff alone can not turn a song to gold.
The songs are not long sprawling epics, perhaps due to the supreme speed with which they are assaulting them with. They prove my point on "the Greatest Dying" which in places finds them slower ever so slightly so nuances can surface. When they finally do slow down it is almost frustrating to think they could have been doing better all along. It is not like the suddenly shift into a doom band and is every bit as black metal without the blast beats. The album ends with "the Warrior Seers". It does lean on the faster side, but does not recklessly hurtle into the abyss with the same intensity. Three minutes in there is a cool creepy riff and it makes me wonder why they could not have done more with it as it would have made the song more memorable. I will give this album an 8 as it loses a greaqt deal of it's potential due to speed, however they are still great at what they do and there are many fans of black metal who settle for nothing but in your face speed with a few cool moments to break things up, I however doubt this will grow on me beyond the few listens I have already given this album.It is being released on Boris Records.
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