VILLAINY — Villainy I (review)

VILLAINY — Villainy I album cover Album · 2013 · Thrash Metal Buy this album from MMA partners
4/5 ·
UMUR
"Villainy I" is the debut full-length studio album by Dutch extreme metal act Villainy. The album was released through Inverted Inhumation Records in December 2013. Villainy was formed in 2010 and released a couple of demos before releasing this debut album.

The music on "Villainy I" is at it´s core raw and old school thrash metal, but there is the occasional blackened edge to it and also both traditional heavy/speed metal/doom metal influences and crust/punk elements. So there is a bit of everything in there, but while Villainy take elements from all those musical styles and put them in their music, "Villainy I" still comes off as a consistent release, where you are never in doubt that it´s the same artist playing. In fact the diversity of the material is a major contributing factor to the fact that "Villainy I" is an entertaining release all the way through the 40:19 minutes it lasts.

It isn´t necessarily what you´ll think after listening to the two opening tracks "Through Whispering Eyes" and "Maker", because those are pretty short, raw, and to the point aggressive thrash metal tracks, but already on the considerably longer (7:07 minutes long) "And Now She is Perfect...", Villainy start showing variation as it´s a brick heavy tracks with a slow doomy pace. Then we´re treated to "Charlatan", which is a mostly instrumental track featuring quite a few traditional heavy metal influences (an some eerie organ), and the diversity of the material just continues like that throughout the album.

So the songwriting is inspired and relatively adventurous within the core thrash metal sound, but the music is also delivered with great conviction and a burning passion. Villainy are an organic sounding trio with a strong rhythm section and a lead vocalist/guitarist in Reinier Vrancken, who is positively on fire, churning out one badass riff after another and delivering a caustic snarling vocal performance in the process. His guitar solos are worth a mention too as they are very well played. There aren´t that many of them though, but when they appear they add a lot to the music.

The album features a raw and organic sound production, which suits the music perfectly. It´s not a murky and dark sound though and you are fully able to hear every instrument clearly. So all in all "Villainy I" is a great debut album by Villainy. Diverse songwriting, skillful playing, and caustic aggression. How can you go wrong with that? A 4 star (80%) rating is deserved.
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