Oh hey little friends. How are you doing this Monday morning? Do you need some blasting blackened black black black *~*~*~*~death*~*~*~*~*~ metal to crank up in your car on your way to the office? Feeling slightly more homicidal than usual given that Starbucks hasn’t yet started serving cold brew?
Look. It’s the summer. Put cold coffee in my mouth hole or I will rip you in half. Anyone catch Game of Thrones last night where the giant fucking takes that one dude and smashes him against a wall? Thats me. That’s me without cold brew. Don’t fuck with me, ok? I’m not alright.
Anywho, this album is a real banger (banger? What the fuck Robin..) to pop in the car, especially if you’re driving to/from work, going to church, coming from church or just out to go get an ice cream cone.
I had only ever heard of a handful of Vredehammer tracks prior to the listening to Violator, and truthfully, the sound wasn’t my jam. I’m very much open to all forms of metal, but there’s a time and a place for thrash/death style and usually that time is Saturday night and the place is in my backyard while burying random bones and doing taxidermy. I like to make sure the experience for my neighbors is as horrifying as it possibly can be.
That said, I have mad respect for death metal based artists, there’s something about the talent that comes with playing fast, play accurately and fucking head banging at the same time. Also, given that Vredehammer is the pet project of Per Valla, formerly a guitarist for the eponymous Abbath, who quit to work more on Vredehammer, there’s a certain respect due here.
Not to poopoo Abbath, but his guitar player kinda beat him at his own game. I much prefer the Vredehammer offering to Abbath’s latest. This isn’t to say that the Abbath record is garbage, but I just see myself putting on Vredehammer more regularly.
Listening to VIOLATOR often felt like getting punched in the face, theres a really big wall of sound type of feel, but more so if the wall was studded in bad stucco and sharp glass. The record starts out fast and furious as Hell, but there’s some odd tempo changes, specifically on the song Violator that kind of had me going –\_(*_*)_/–, but that doesn’t mean anything. What I also enjoyed from this offering was how many hooks were in the tracks – I’m thinking most specifically of Ursus – some pretty legitimate guitar work melody that is a bone not always thrown to the audience. This makes the song.. dare I say catchy? Does that make me a false? I hope I do not get burned and died.
I have a tiny goldfish brain, forgive me if this is not so kvlt and grim and frostbitten, but if a melody somehow wedges itself into my brain worms, then I’m going to want to go back again and again to the song or musician, and this type of thing is what tends to drive me as a fan. I’m a big fan of gimmicks, innovation, interesting concepts or even clever wordplay. If you can catch me on one of these fronts then the media I’m consuming will stick with me.
The guitar on Violator is up front and powerful as it should be, and I liked that the vocals didn’t delve into the black metal shrieky time that seems to permeate a lot of the blackened death I’ve listened to in the past.
I think the weakest track for me was Cyclone – far from being a swirling mass of chaos, the track was rife with odd time signatures, weird drumming and a whole lot of WTFery. Didn’t work for me at all. But I mean, I really think this band is perfecting their sound, finding their footing and has created a fucking sick record.
I recommend checking them out and hitting up their website so you can buy a copy.