Vltimas' Something Wicked Marches In is a perfect synergy of black & death metal! (Review)

At last! Vltimas’ debut album Something Wicked Marches In  is finally out! The album was released via Season of Mist on March 29^th. For those who aren’t familiar with this band, it consists of 3 legendary musicians from the death/black metal realm – David Vincent on bass & vocals (ex-Morbid Angel, I am Morbid), Flo Mounier on the drums (Cryptopsy) and Rune Eriksen (Aura Noir, ex-Mayhem).You can find the whole album stream on the official Season of Mist YouTube channel.  Here is our take on this album!

The album opener is the self-titled track. It starts with this creepy, clean guitar in the background intermingled with a distorted one.  As you can hear from the first riffs, the band delivers some serious shredding.  The death metal part is followed by some neat black metal-sounding progression. Something Wicked Marches in is a pretty solid song to start the album with. Praevalidus is more of a full-on exhibition of brutality that, again, incorporates both death and black metal parts respectively. Flo Mounier’s merciless drumming is carrying the whole tune forward. His double bass & blast beats are killing it! And it seems that David Vincent’s vocals are untouched by time. The guy is still in his prime! Blasphemer’s black metal tendencies are manifested through dissonant-sounding, chunky riffs. Speaking of dissonance, the next song, Total Destroy starts with a noisy guitar chord. And after that, the song echoes the glory days of Mayhem’s Grand Declaration of War  and  Morbid Angel’s  Domination era and after that Blasphemer delivers some catchy leads. Monolilith starts with one of the best riffs on the album. The song is slower than the rest of the tracks and has some weird vocal parts that abolish the greatness of the first riff by taking away the overall brutality of this song. However, the song then proceeds with an awesome Mayhem-sounding guitar chord and then goes back to the stuff we already said we don’t like. Maybe we’ll get used to it and fall in love with it after time… who knows? Truth and Consequence is another fast-paced track where things are getting more intense and technical. Vincent’s hellhoundish growls really give the songs unmatched death metal brutality.  Of course, Blasphemer’s black metal background is clearly felt in the slower parts of the songs. And throughout the whole record, Flo delivers a halo of double bass madness as fast as machine gun fire!  The guy is pounding those drums non-stop! Last Ones Alive Wins Nothing starts slow and then proceeds with mantric 6^th string buzzing.  This song is pretty simple and hypnotic to say the least! Especially when the chord progression kicks in!  Everlasting will put a death metal grin on your face as soon as you hear these wicked riffs! And if there was a contest in brutality, I couldn’t make up my mind who contributes the most to the feeding frenzy that surrounds this track! Diabolus est Sanguis  is another brutal track with some more than catchy riffing. We won’t get in details ‘cause this one was already released as a single.  And for the record, David Vicent’s ohoohooho part in this song is in place, unlike the part we already mentioned in Monolilith. Marching On is another brutality-infested piece of art that will draw your attention from the very start. Man, I’m addicted to the black metal aspect of this release! It’s kinda creepy and soothing at the same time! And yeah, make room for brilliant soloing!

Vltimas’ Something Wicked Marches In  is the living proof that this trio IS a real band, not some fancy supergroup.  This is, without a question, a pretty damn strong release no matter which parameters are involved. The dual nature of Something Wicked Marches In shows how perfect the balance and synergy of death metal and black metal can be, especially if we have in mind the greatness of all 3 members of the band. Other than the vocal part we still don’t like in song Monolith, it seems that the rest of the album has no bigger flaws. David Vincent’s vocals are still as brutal as they were when he was in Morbid Angel. But it seems to us that Blasphemer is the real mastermind here.  Flo is killing it as always…. You shouldn’t skip this release by any means! It is worth your every second!

Rating: 8/10

Track-list

1. Something Wicked Marches In (4:28)
2. Praevalidus (3:39)
3. Total Destroy! (2:57)
4. Monolilith (5:25)
5. Truth And Consequence (3:42)
6. Last Ones Alive Win Nothing (5:29)
7. Everlasting (3:40)
8. Diabolus Est Sanguis (3:27)
9. Marching On (5:34)

Total: 38:21

Style: Death Metal

https://www.facebook.com/VLTIMAS

Produced & Recorded by Jaime Gomez Arellano, Orgone Studios (UK)

Line-up:

David Vincent – Vocals

Rune Blasphemer Eriksen – Guitars

Flo Mounier - Drums – guitars

Pre-sales: http://smarturl.it/VLTIMASshop

Available formats

CD Digipak

LP Gatefold in various colours

Cassette