28 February 2024
Vltimas! It’s the right time to review their 2019 album. As you know, the band is about to release its new album Season of Mist. Judging by the first singles, it looks like we will encounter something similar in style and quality. After parting ways with Mayhem, Blasphemer spent some time with Ava Inferi, which he founded with his wife. Aura Noir, of which he has been a part since the first album, is already more like a living organism than a union of musicians. It appears and disappears occasionally. But it’s always there somewhere, as if it reminds us of the immortality of music. If we are talking about a genre called black thrash today, we owe it to Aura Noir. Of course, having the honor of being a part of such a band is important even for an accomplished musician like Blasphemer.
However, a musician of this caliber, who toured extensively with Mayhem for years and was the main composer of the band’s post-DMDS period, should have had a band to work with more intensively and to center his life on. Vltimas turns out to be this Band. I don’t know what the founding story of the band is, who or what circumstances brought these guys together, but thanks to this, we now have another exquisite blackened death metal band. For those who don’t know, former Morbid Angel vocalist David Vincent is on vocals, and Cryptopsy’s main man Flo Mounier is on drums. Rune Eriksen (Blasphemer) is responsible for all the compositions of the album. Naturally, the band’s music sometimes reminds us of Blasphemer era Mayhem and sometimes Morbid Angel. Having Vincent in the band naturally influenced Blasphemer that he was inspired by Morbid Angel while composing. The intro of Monolilith, one of the best songs of the album, is a good example of this. However, at the end of the day, it would be accurate to say that the main backbone of the band’s music is the musical approach that Blasphemer put forward while in Mayhem.
It is unnecessary to interpret the album in terms of musicianship because the experience of the members is obvious. Both Blasphemer and Flo gave great performances. It would be useful to open a separate parenthesis here for David Vincent. We can say that Vincent’s vocals are the embodiment of experience in the form of a sound wave. I love vocals like this that are both brutal and understandable. I guess in order to achieve this, a vocalist must also have normal singing ability. David did a great job. It fits perfectly with the dynamic and energetic music of the band. The band produces very harsh music that does not give up on melody.
The album was produced by Jamie Gomez Arellano, who was also the producer of Ghost’s first album, Opus Epynomous. Maybe that’s the reason, for the artwork the band worked with Zbigniew Bielak, with whom Ghost have worked for a long time. The album has a beautiful black and white cover.
To sum up, it is a very enjoyable first album to listen to and will satisfy those who miss both Blasphemer’s riffs and David Vincent’s wonderful vocals. Of course, with Flo’s superhuman drumming. I can’t wait for May 15th.
8,5/10
