VULTURE INDUSTRIES – Ghosts from the Past

The delightfully unpredictable purveyors of dramatic avantgarde metal/rock never cease to amaze me, and their upcoming fifth LP, which is entitled Ghosts from the Past, is the stuff that strangely unsettling and highly dystopian dreams are made of. Yes, this is exactly the kind of record that we all need to listen to these days; not only is it near-flawless but it also sounds so incredibly prescient in terms of where the world at large is headed that it is outright uncanny. Musically adventurous, lyrically inventive, and chock-full of surprises, Vulture Industries may in fact have unleashed their most exhilarating opus to date.  

For the sake of clarity, let me just stress the fact that there are neither any forgettable nor even remotely uninteresting songs to be found on this disc. Although the content leans more towards the dark spectrum of hard rock than metal, it undoubtedly has Vulture Industries written all over it, and you will find few if any outfits that are capable of weaving experimental rock, forward-thinking metal, gloomy singer-songwriter music, hauntingly bleak Americana, and 80s-influenced Goth rock together to such magnificent effect. Allow me to single out a couple of my own personal album highlights, okay? ‘Deeper’ is one of the catchiest but perhaps also most world-weary entries, which is to say that this one truly resonates with this scribe and has a wonderful ability to tug at the heartstrings and move the listener. Its glorious vocal melodies and brilliant arrangements are something out of the ordinary, and it is one of those deeply satisfying listening experiences that one will be keep returning to. Closing track ‘Tyrants Weep Alone’ is one of the finest compositions by these gentlemen to date, and there is something about Bjørnar E. Nilsen’s charismatic vocals and the brooding flavors of the music that make it a cathartic listen. The song material in general is occasionally terrifying and eerie due to its subject matter but there are vague glimmers of hope to be discovered too if you listen closely, or at least the prospect of an exit however distant and far off it may appear. What really strikes me here is how effortlessly they conjure up soundscapes that slide back and forth between the hellish, the cinematic, the theatrical, the manic, and the unnervingly absurd. What sets it apart from its predecessors besides the quality of the songwriting then? Perhaps its slightly more somber aura? There is only one way for you to find out.   

Ghosts From the Past is indeed a suitable soundtrack to this day and age and a uniquely crafted work of genius that seems infinitely rewarding. To these ears, it is their most accessible output to date, yet it lends itself perfectly to deep listening as new details and nuances constantly emerge. Amazing would be one way of describing it – another would be intoxicating. The fact is that Vulture Industries have never sounded better.