In recent years there has been a big glut of worship bands, mostly I would say in the realms of Death Metal and Heavy Metal. A number of years prior there was also that big Thrash boom with bands like Gama Bomb, Evile etc. Needless to say, praising the old ways of Metal is something that is probably always going to be part of the scene, and honestly it’s not really a bad thing. More bands like the bands I already like, cool. So the attention shifts to the 2015 formed, fresh faces of Vulture. A German Heavy Metal force who add a powerful helping of Speed Metal to the mix to create an ultimate ‘do you remember the 80s’ experience. Today I’ll be looking at their fourth full length release from Metal Blade, Sentinels.
Hitting hard with the Thrash laden aggression of Speed Metal and laced with the melodic tones of Heavy Metal, opening song Screams From The Abattoir soon makes itself known. Then it’s time to be transported back to the 80s with the vocals, clean but rough in places and teased with the odd falsetto the worship becomes very real. I would like to point out though that I’m always uneasy with bands who have this sort of fake reverb 80s sounding vocal change, like it’s not the 80s anymore and whilst it’s a great sound I feel like it’s of its time and adding effects now feels a little fake. It’s hard to be too annoyed though, especially when Unhallowed & Forgotten comes in, adding to the mix some perfect anthemic vocal hooks, this is what we all want. Then there’s Transylvania, the under one-minute instrumental that is basically pointless, an odd choice especially this early on in the record. I get that it’s a sort of precursor to Realm Of The Impaler but maybe this could have been a little later in the album, or even an opener? Nonetheless, Realm is a pretty banging song, again laced most importantly with big vocal hooks and excellent riffs. Draw Your Blades offers up much of the same in a display that I can only describe as an album that will grow on you. Vulture have all the right hits and I think given time I could really love what they do but after a little while it just becomes a touch flat, the kind of record you need to sink some time into.
It’s when you hear riffs like that from the opening of Where There’s A Whip (There Is A Way) that I think, damn this is quality. Truth be told it is all really catchy too but as I said I think this is an album that needs time to brew in your mind before coming to classic status. Scratching over to Death Row and I think I’ve finally had my fill of Vulture, don’t get me wrong this is great and has a really true and classic sound about it. It’s memorable, fast paced Heavy Metal and I’m sure it will tick many boxes with many people. However, I often spend more of my time thinking about older bands I should be listening to within this similar genre bracket. There is of course room for new blood but I think I just have to be in the right mood. Honestly, by Oathbreaker though the songs begin to sound very tried and tested, again not bad by any stretch but I’m just a bit done with the run of the mill formula. The closing song is once again a pretty big banger but it’s just a bit too heavy on the worship.
Maybe therein lies the issue for me with Heavy/ Speed/ Thrash worship, it’s almost always just too much. Two bands whilst quite different to Vulture that spring to mind are Visigoth and Eternal Champion. Visigoth have a love for Heavy Metal and just add more songs to the ever growing pit of damnation but Eternal Champion are so focused on sounding old school that it just comes off as a little try hard. Such is the case here with Vulture. I really like what they’re doing and I do think I would listen to this again, hell I would absolutely see them at a festival, in fact that might be the sort of push I need. On record however I think this newer wave of Heavy Metal worship is for all its ‘true’ actually pretty false, sorry guys.
(7/10 George Caley)
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