Formed in 2012 as the brainchild of Simon Abele and featuring members, both past and presently in Liquid Horizon, December Flower, Edge Of Serenity, Behind The Scenery and Athean, Andsolis are a new progressive death metal group set to release their debut album “Vigil”. With a name meaning Against the sun’ in Old Norse, the Central European seven piece have crafted an album heavily inspired by grief, loss, struggles and hope. Let’s see if this vigil is something worth staying awake and holding out for.
‘Stand Vigil’, a 9 minute epic opens the album and it wastes no time in getting into the action. A scythe-like guitar with harsh vocals over it cuts through the silence. Synth noises and tight rhythm work hold it all together and add some flavour to it and the riffs are fantastic. In the chorus, the second vocalist comes in with the clean vocals creating a big contrast to the verses and it works well enough. The change in style and mood when the vocal styles shift well helps emphasise the different vocalists, with the clean singing getting a more melodic backing than the growls and this continues with the predominantly clean section halfway through the song which dramatically shifts back to the harsh style just before the 8 minute mark. The song goes into a final chorus once more before it ends.
‘Kingdoms Without Shape’ follows next and this one clocks in at just under 6 minutes. Starting off with a slightly hypnotic lead section over some big riffs, the song kicks in with a shifting feel. There are a few moments where the song shifts and it sounds extremely familiar to the first song, especially with the clean vocal sections and the music backing them, but it starts off well. The melody to heavy aspect still remains with the two vocalists and it seems fairly evenly split between the two approaches. The lead section in the middle of the song before it switches to the heavier section is great and the ending of the heavy section, round the 4:16 mark has a unique folk sounding feel to it before going back to the initial verse/chorus styling. It’s a lot easier and accessible than the opening track and one wonders whether this may have been a better choice to start the album with.
‘In Silent Confidence’ is another long track. It starts off with a traditional/folk style clean guitar which turns into a twisting series of distorted riffs which are accompanied by the harsh vocals. In contrast to the previous tracks, this harsh section is brighter sounding which adds an interesting slant and the clean singing sections have a darker edge to them musically. The song itself has a slightly ominous feel to it in parts which helps keep interest and the instrumental section just after the halfway point of the song is interesting too – a small lead section goes into a folk sounding bit where the clean vocals come back in before it picks up in intensity with another lead section before wrapping up with the main bit of the song once again.
The Mystic’ opens up with a real death metal feel to it. Fast paced, hard hitting and intense, it tears through the steadier pace of the previous tracks and even under the clean vocal parts, it keeps the pace up. The rhythm work is fantastic, precise and heavy and the harsh vocals are fantastic. Round the mid-point, it calms down to an eerie clean section with the clean vocals which really adds some intensity building up and when the payoff moment comes at the 4 minute mark, it really explodes to life, making the final 2 minutes one of the best moments of the album so far.
‘Days of Receding Light’ brings back the more progressive approach, at least in the intro anyway. The clean section is atmosphere building with its ambient/post rock sounds and when the dirt kicks in, it has a big song feel too it with leads which add some flair to the song. It’s got a good feel to it, almost like a groove in the rhythm which lets the lead work dance across it creating a complete feel. The clean vocals are strong on this song with the musical direction taken behind them and it works well, and the touches of the Hammond organ in the background just tops it off. It’s a great track, not much else needs to be said.
‘Meridian Smiles’ has that time-signature thing going on again with its angular sounding riffs under the harsh vocals at the start. The interplay between the two vocal styles doesn’t quite work as well on this song, but the blasts of Hammond organ on this track help distract from the awkward co-vocal moments. Near the middle of the song, it goes into another break moment with a sombre sounding piano section which slows it right down before it kicks back in with the disjointed feel. It just seems like there is too much going on all at once in this track and it’s a shame as the previous two tracks were really strong too.
‘The Laughter Echoes’ is the album closer. Opening with a bass focused clean section, the clean vocals give it a sorrowful feel which comes across as slightly haunting, especially with the bright sounding synth melody behind it. Despite the promising start, the track just comes across as filler, put together to try and round the album off, and maybe it would have been better suited in the middle to act as a link to another track.
On the whole, “Vigil” is an ambitious effort at a complex debut album. It has some good moments, two real stand out tracks, but what lets it down is the length of the album and track ordering. It’s hard to get into and harder to stay focused on it to actually listen to it and take it in. Ambition is good, but this just had too much.
(6/10 Fraggle)
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