Reviews: Vreid, The Malefic Grip, Defeatist, Aphonic Threnody (Reviews By Matt Bladen)

Vreid - Wild North West (Season Of Mist)

Norwegian band Vreid are a band who are pioneers of both the Black n Roll and anti-fascist black metal scene in their native country. Now I won't go into the anti-fascist part that much here as Paul Scoble would do it much more justice to it than me but, I can just say that Vreid have been crusading against the tumultuous history of black metal of Norway and they have always been a band that have been evolving with concepts running throughout their albums. On this ninth record they have brought to the masses a fully realised concept based around an entire movie, all of it stemming from bassist/founder Jarle Hváll Kvåle who said that this dark journey into the mountains is based around his own life but taken to theatrical lengths for effect. 

The entire project is massive in scope not just with this album but the creative media and filmography behind it, much of these melodies having been around since 2002 when Kvåle was in Windir with Terje ‘Valfar’ Bakken, whose death was the end of Windir but the beginning of Vreid. Valfar's keyboard demos have been fully realised on the song Into The Mountains adding a some history to this record for long time followers of the band. So then what of Wild North West, well it's once again got a fully panoramic scope of Vreid's musical menagerie, the black n roll sound at it's nastiness on the opening title track, taking your mind to the L.G Petrov and co at their most aggressive. 

It's aggression that fills this dark concept as the blistering Wolves At Sea keeps the vicious pace of the record the dissonant riffs and blast beats balanced with melodic keys, The Morning Red is doomier while Shadows Of Aurora ups the thrash quotient before we go back into vicious black metal with Spikes Of God. At 49 minutes Wild North West makes the most of its time on your stereo, taking away from the extreme metal sound with Dazed And Reduced which actually sounds like Ghost as we get the black n roll sound back for the Into The Mountains a short blast of violence before the nine minute gothic organ drenched Shadowland a fitting finale for this album. Those who are aware of Vreid, or have seen one of their numerous live shows, or have bought their sold out first run of beer from Balder Brewery will be well aware of Vreid's influence, but one listen to Wild North West you understand why they are held in high regard. 7/10    

The Malefic Grip - Yesterdays Problems, Today (Self Released)

Bristol based rage slingers The Malefic Grip are a band that if you are familiar with, will have you getting a little nervous about before you press play. Their rage-filled rants about the world today are punctuated by sludgy, window rattling riffs and powered by lots of cider, all without having an official drummer as a member. The Malefic Grip were starting to gain steam when their drummer decided to part, leaving just Liam (screaming, bass, additional things) and Helen (guitar, additional screaming), both of Levitas, stuck in a lockdown world, trying to avoid the never-ending cycle of media shitstorms and political/social and moral corruption it's all entailed. 

This proved to be the perfect fuel for their fire and with writing sessions throughout 2020, Yesterdays Problems, Today, the band's debut album, emerged from the sound desk helicoptering it's arms while the waiting world kicked the air, both knowing that if they get hurt it's their own fault. The band state influences such as Iron Monkey, Goatsnake, Mudhoney, Monster Magnet and The Melvins, the latter most noticeable in their sarcastic wordplay and their complete refusal to commit to any genre tag other than that of noise for noise's sake. 

Colossal, cavernous fuzzing riffs often shift into single note points of dissonance, slabs of acid-fuelled doom crush anything in their path (Malvoid/A Neglectful Throne) before you're thrown into a tornado of punk rock violence (Incel Jesus). Now there are drums here (probably supplied by the late Mr Jobs), but when you've got a bass so low it can be used to summon earthworms and a guitar that is fuzzier than Pomeranian but has more bite than a Mastiff, the lack of a drummer doesn't affect things too much (don't mail me hate drummers). A raging, often woozy, trip through the collective mind of The Malefic Grip is both unsettling and exhilarating, Worms taking you into the furthest reaches of disgust in humanity through swathes of psychedelia and rampaging riffs. Yesterdays Problems, Today is very much music for the present, acerbic, angry and commentating on a world beyond parody. 8/10     

Defeatist - Closure EP (Self Released)

Cardiff and South Wales, do have a previous form of producing bands that play anthemic, emotional alternative music. I guess you could call it Emo perhaps Pop Punk and even Hardcore but bands such as Holding Absence fly the flag but acts like Funeral For A Friend, Hondo Maclean, The Blackout, Continents and even Brutality Will Prevail have all been the face of angsty, angry, often politically charged music coming from a place steeped in poetry and music. Defeatist are a band with a few false starts behind them, however any legacy of what came before was cast into the bin of history when Jacob joined as vocalist last year. In that time, through the obvious tribulations they have been reborn with Closure an EP full of sadness but also hope. The title refers to this EP being the final piece of Defeatists previous journey, signalling the beginning of their new one. 

After the EP was recorded Adam and Olly (guitar and bass) left the band so with Jacob now also on guitar and Ben added as bassist, Closure really has finality to it. Recorded by the always brilliant Timothy Vincent of Woodcroft Audio, Closure explodes out of your speakers with endearing mixture of choppy hardcore punk riffs, melodic shifts and Jacobs emotive vocals which on Change Of Seasons which features screamer Jake Oliver (Wilderness) in duality to Jacobs clean resonant tones. There's a real feel of Architects and Fightstar across these five tracks, the deeply personal lyrics making for star listening when you focus in on them.  If Change Of Seasons is the heaviest song on the record, then the heartfelt Mother is it's lightest, echoed vocals and clean strings, that builds into a beautiful post-hardcore/emo final for the EP. 

The lyrics hit hard especially if you have any shared experiences. Skin Deep is a propulsive opener that has its roots in pop punk, Never Enough brings a touch of djent (which sounds like a cologne) and Oceans Apart is the track that carries that proggy Fightstar sound. As I said Closure is both an ending and a beginning for Defeatist, I for one am looking forward to where they go from here! 8/10

Aphonic Threnody - All Consuming Void (Self Released)

Funeral Doom is always approached with caution by myself, a large amount of it does very little for me. I can count on one hand how many bands I actually enjoy on one hand. In opposition to traditional doom, the addition of atmospheric extremity borrowed from black metal bands, means that the songs are usually way over well over 10 minutes long, without very much differentiation in the riffs except for an occasional shift into gothic ethereals. Aphonic Threnody is one such record that does funeral doom at its most enclosing, encircling you in a pit of despair. Take Chamber Of Parasites which is a 20 minute song, nearly a quarter of the whole run time. It what I can make out as three riffs that are played slowly, lowly and with bone shaking distortion. It also has vocals so guttural, it would have been easier just to put it near an idling engine. All Consuming Void is certainly an album that lives up to the album title, for me it's just too much like every other funeral doom band. 5/10