I made a peculiar observation upon reading the bio that came along with the promo of the upcoming debut album, “Reflecting the Shadows,” by up-and-coming Tampere-based hybrid-metal act VANSIDIAN. According to the band itself, their music sets out to mix melodic death, 1980s-tinted heavy metal, and retro video-game-inspired melodies. The word, “video game” stood out, in particular. The thing is, the tracklist reads out almost like the synopsis for a science-fiction-themed arcade game of the Philip K. Dick variety, what with all the subtle hints toward Matrix-diving through shadowy layers of reality, being hunted by some dream-devouring stormweavers – or maybe I’ve just spent too much time with the 2017 space-age survival game, Prey, of late. Be as it may, the new VANSIDIAN offering does tickle my fancy for a number of reasons, with the killer quality of the songs not being the least, let me tell you. The album is set for release on May 19th, 2023, independently, though the single, “Stormweaver,” has already gathered some 30,000 streams on Spotify, as well as some 9,000 YouTube views to boot, without any paid promotion. So, suffice it to say, these guys rock!
Now, let’s set the record straight: melodeath is not exactly my cup of tea, when it comes to my favorite metal genres, with very few exceptions to the rule. So, as the album kicked off with “Dive,” rolling out a tight jab of metal antics of that sort, I was perhaps a tad dismayed, “Oh, no. Not this again!” It did not take long, however, until I started spotting those 1980s-inspired nuances here and there. The riffs and licks of the IRON MAIDEN school of thought, especially, prompted me to think I ought to give this outing a chance before making any final conclusions. Didn’t these ruffians just endorse their craft as some sort of hybrid metal? Perhaps I should brace myself for a good few pleasant surprises and not be such a grumpy old grit? My change of heart was soon rewarded; the guitar solo that soon aired proved particularly lit in the sort of vintage heavy-metal fashion and the coda with the clean vocals wrapped the song up as though providing the icing on the cake. So, I guess my rather short list of exceptionally pleasing melodeath acts just grew by one more band. Sure, VANSIDIAN is not perhaps the purest specimen of melodeath and that is probably the reason why it sounds so damn good to me!
I was even more pleased, upon reading the press release for the other single cut, “Cycle,” particularly tickling that little science-fiction buff within me, especially. The song is an uptempo banger about leaping to and fro in time, ravaging the boundaries of reality. The verses are a bit melodeath-heavy but, as luck would have it, they do not overstay their welcome – and the chorus is the real breadwinner! The lead guitar weaves nice ornaments in the background, triggering flashbacks of all sorts. For the life of me, I cannot recall which of the two IRON MAIDEN guitarists on those 1980s records sported that particularly soaring legato style – here, on occasion, you can sense something very close, which obviously rubs old-school metalheads the very right way.
Okay, so VANSIDIAN won me over with just a couple of songs – and neither of those is even the best this album has to offer. The title track, for instance, towers over these aforementioned bangers like nothing to it; the guitar melodies really grab you and vocalist Juha Tretjakov not only delivers some killer melodeath-belting, the clean vocals are where he really shines – and on this song he even drops some haunting falsetto singing in the best EARTH, WIND & FIRE fashion! I assume that is not something you would hear on the average melodeath offering. Yes, these fellows are onto something rather unique, so maybe I should ditch the melodeath moniker altogether. It certainly doesn’t do justice to the versatile style of this bunch. Let’s go with the hybrid-metal label, instead.
Other highlights on the album are songs such as “Suppressed with Light,” what with its delicate balance of – yeah, you guessed it! – light and dark, and “Hunt,” which throws in a pinch of power-metal aesthetics. Strangely enough, since I’m not exactly a guitar-oriented music nerd, I couldn’t help but find the guitar work throughout the album to be top-notch – the riffs, licks, solos, everything. Then again, a strong sense of melody is something that very rarely goes wrong! So, yeah, all things considered, by virtue of being the band’s debut, “Reflecting the Shadows” is nothing short of a technical knockout in the first round.
Written by Jani Lehtinen
Tracklist
- Dive
- Code of Shame
- Reflecting the Shadows
- Stormweaver
- Cycle
- Suppressed with Light
- The Hunt
- The Breach
- Of Dreams Devoured
Lineup
Matti Meri-Huhti – lead guitars, backing vocals
Juha Tretjakov – lead vocals
Kustaa Tuori – rhythm guitars
Jyri Niinikoski – bass
Joona Törmä – drums
Label
Independent
