Nightfly
I was blown away by Vredehammer’s 2016 album Violator, a near perfect slab of blackened death metal, awarding it 5 stars in my review here on MMA. Not surprisingly I was eager to see if they could do it again on album number three, Viperous. Seems like all Vredehammer album titles are going to begin with a V, their debut being called Vinteroffer. Anyway, I digress…
Fortunately they have done it again. After a surprising pulsing synth intro Winds Of Dysphoria kicks in with all guns blazing with the kind of incendiary riffing that drew me to Violator. The line up has changed again with only band leader Per Valla remaining from the Violator album but it does see the return of guitarist Kristoffer Hansen from the debut album. Fortunately the changes hasn’t affected the quality of the songs or the overall sound of the band, although the afore mentioned synths do return from time to time, used more for effect than any major role it has to be said. The pace of the songs is generally fast though they do slow the tempo down from time which is always more effective than relentless blast beats and warp speed double kicks, as important as they are. The riffs are razor sharp and like last time, they inject just enough melody into the songs that make them instantly memorable, but not that much that it affects the brutality of it all. That’s not to say that repeated listens won’t bring further rewards – as with all great albums Viperous takes a few plays to establish its true greatness. The overall quality is very consistent throughout and for examples of what encapsulates their blackened death metal you can more or less take your pick though I have a particular soft spot for the title track and In Shadow.
My initial thoughts on Viperous were that it wasn’t quite as good as Violator but it didn’t take many plays to make me realise that it was equally brilliant. For that reason, like last time I have to award it the full 5 stars. This is going to be one of the albums of this shitty covid infected year for sure. A few more albums of this quality will help raise our spirits no end.