This band from Australia has been doing its multi metal thing since the early 1990s. This album is their fourth full release.
After a harmless opener, it’s down to business with the darkest kind of death metal you could wish for. The filthy growls are decidedly black metal. “Death of an Unknown Architect” sways in tempo from rumbling thrashiness to dirty, drawn-out blackened death metal. But it works as a piece and I guess is evidence of the “labyrinthine structures” that we are warned about. “Waiting with the Wolves” takes down a similar eclectic path with intense batterings of death metal, sophisticated guitar work, breaks where we take off into different directions, tempo changes and constant heaviness hanging over it. From doomy beginnings, “As Ships upon Shores” bursts into deathly flames. The withering guitar line signals contempt. There really isn’t a ray of light in this, although Vahrzaw to their credit don’t simply descend into the abyss, but rather litter their pieces with colourful and to some extent melodic passages. In short, they’re an interesting band to listen to.
Tension is built at the start of “Vultures” which breaks out into a thrashy feast of fury, guitar solo and all and in contrast to the rest of this album with a flamboyant Finnish style when they’re not just bashing us over the head with deep chords. After the relative breeziness of “Vultures”, we move on to the more substantial “The Pessimist”. Discordant sounds get rudely interrupted by the more solid and rumbustious heavy style which is the hallmark of this album. We do deviate into dark and sinister alleyways, thus returning to the transformative structure of the earlier “The Unknown Architect”. The growly guitar and patient build up create an impressive murky structure, ending in chaotic psychedelia. After being cut off in its prime, all that remains is an acoustic piece like the intro, which seems strange in the context of the darkly intense world which invades the rest of it.
“The Trembling Voices of Conquered Men” wasn’t as far out as the claims seemed to make it. In fact there was a lot of old school no nonsense death and thrash metal in there. But what made this album particularly enjoyable was the musicianship, which is not just tight as you might expect of a band that’s been around for 30 years, but is employed in such a way that each track meanders through twists and turns and fluid transformations of tempo and style.
(8/10 Andrew Doherty)
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