I don’t really understand Djent fully, it’s also a silly name for a genre. I don’t even really know if I’m the biggest fan of it, but conceptually it’s a cool idea. Tech Metal is also something I’m not that well versed in outside of Tech Death. Again, I don’t even really know if I’m the biggest fan of the likes of Tesseract or Periphery. I probably need to brush up on this area of music knowledge, anyway no time like the present, let’s get into some Djent goodness.
Today I’m reviewing Vildhjarta’s second full length album Måsstaden Under Vatten the follow up to their ground-breaking 2011 debut Måsstaden. More ground-breaking in my mind as a release I’ve heard about rather than one I can recall greatly in a musical sense. Anyway, I knew this would be a big release and wanted to jump on the opportunity to review a potential album of the year. So, do the Swedish legends live up to their hype? Let’s get into it.
The album rattles in with Lavender Haze, some absolutely barbaric drumming being the first thing of note. Not to mention sporadic Jazz-like guitar melodies and Djent dissonance, chuggy but certainly not atonal. I seldom let bands off the hook with instrumentals but given the Tech nature of the band I’ll allow them here. The vocals promptly come alive in När De Du Älskar Kommer Tillbaka Från De Döda (thank you copy and paste), they’re nothing too special, very Deathcore orientated with a range one would expect, not overtly guttural with a few higher notes thrown in. Although much like more straight Prog Rock, it’s not all about the vocals, indeed they are but a small piece of this Tech Prog Death Djent puzzle which fits together very well. Kaos2 brings in clean vocals which are highly emotive and the perfect offset to the harsh tones, a bit of a case where I would rather just have clean vocals than harsh. I will say a lot of songs begin to blend together after Kaos2, not necessarily in a bad way, I mean this is certainly an album experience but if you were looking at it song by song then the variation is minimal. Måsstadens Nationalsång (Under Vatten) is probably next to really grab me, another instrumental and one full of impact, the kind one might expect from a Post-Rock/ Metal act.
Truly the influences in this release can’t be understated, it’s a broad spectrum of not just the Metal underground but music itself. Huge swathes of knowledge can be felt here and as a music lover myself (clearly) it’s beautiful and refreshing to hear. Heartsmear begins the second half proper and it’s back into the furrow of more expectant riffs and Tech, it begs the question whether Vildhjarta could do with simply dropping the brutality? I feel like this is what is holding the album back the most. Vagabond (being a longer song) at least packs something more of a punch, one which stands out a bit from the crowd and brings in some of the elements found in the instrumentals. Detta Drömmars Sköte En Slöja Till Ormars Näste proves again that we need more clean vocals to, for sure this is an album that isn’t without its faults. By the time Paaradiso rolls in I’m a touch done in, it’s a pretty long album, although I must commend the band on consistency throughout, a massive work ethic and generally an unwillingness to slow down.
All in all I can’t say I would rave about this record, but what I will say is that it shows promise. There’s an awful lot that I like in this release, almost all of the influences resonate with me, and on paper it’s basically a perfect album. In practice however it is a little dragging, the harsh vocals seem unnecessary and in fact so too do some of the Djent heavy sections. I would actually rather see Vildhjarta take a more standard Prog/ Tech approach (much like later Cynic) as these are the moments which shine brightest to me. With a few tweaks I could’ve fallen in love with this album. Would I recommend it? Absolutely, it’s a fine example of Tech and if you like Djent then you’ll have a whale of a time, I just think it could stand to be a bit shorter and maybe pack some longer songs in, if that makes sense, you know like fifty minute length but one of the songs is twenty minutes? You know what I mean!
(7/10 George Caley)
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