_________________________________________________________________________ | . . | . | . | . | . | | . | . | , | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | > | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | ` | ' | | | ' | | ` | ' | ' | ___|___|___|___|_______|_______|___|___|_______|___|_______|_______|_______|___ \______________________________________|______________________________________/ / \ | Artist..: VAK | >-----------------------------------------------------------------------------< | Album...: The Islands | >-----------------------------------------------------------------------------< | Genre...: Metal | Label...: Indie Recordings | | Year....: 2023 | Cat.No..: | >-----------------------------------------------------------------------------< | R.date..: 2023-09-03 | S.date..: 2023-09-01 | >-----------------------------------------------------------------------------< | Source..: WEB (16bit) | Encoder.: libFLAC | | Bitrate.: 999 kbps avg. | F.Rate..: 44.1kHz | >-----------------------------------------------------------------------------< | http://open.qobuz.com/album/vzhqz1mptobva | >-----------------------------------------------------------------------------< | Disc 1 / 1 | | -------- | | | | 01. Passport 2:59 | | 02. Panorama 3:16 | | 03. Sewer Café 4:22 | | 04. Q & A 5:05 | | 05. Speed of Images 8:36 | | 06. The Map 7:20 | | 07. Bodies 7:31 | | 08. Melody Junkie 10:54 | | | | | | --------------------- | | (371.69MB) 00:50:03 | >-----------------------------------------------------------------------------< | Alright, you sodden louts, ready thine ears because this here album will | | need to enter forthwith. We usually save that sort of statement for the | | second paragraph, using the first to build tension with a nice gentle | | lead-up, but if you want one of those, tough shit. This is your lead-up. | | Gapen your hearing holes and get ready to absorb one of the flat-out | | coolest albums of the year, coming from the Stockholm underground to | | deliver a baseball bat, wrapped in barbed wire and dipped in ayahuasca, | | straight to the trachea. VAK has arrived. | | | | VAK reminds me of a dozen bands and doesn't sound quite like any of them. | | The foundation is in sludge, but not the thundering, bottom-heavy kind. A | | closer comparison would be the ramble of The Melvins, with all the grunge | | bits replaced by screeching, feedback-laden meltdowns that tear at the | | flesh like meat hooks. The drums emphasize this slicing-over-bludgeoning | | focus; the snare hits the hardest, sometimes even recalling military drum | | rolls ( Speed of Images ). A hefty dose of noise-core atonality rubs salt | | and vinegar in the wounds, while waves of thick synthesizers carefully | | pick the right moment to flood the room with neon light before retreating | | to the background. The vocals are not pretty, not even especially skilled, | | but between the wheezing, venomous screams and the acerbic spit-spraying | | over-pronunciation, there is a biting vigor, raging at the dregs of | | society with a dark madness that borders on the theatrical, and it s | | exactly what the music requires. | | | | Instrumental opener Passport is the most synthy of all, suckling | | greedily from the teat of darkwave and lulling you into a false sense of | | cyberpunk security, but that blanket is torn to shreds as soon as | | Panorama begins its nasty and distorted broadcast. VAK quickly proves | | itself a capable unit in both song- and albumcraft, and though some tracks | | are comparable, none feel remotely like the band is repeating a step. | | "Sewer Café" flits between a burly punk rhythm that feels like navigating | | an overcrowded downtown with a panic attack, and a crushing riff that | | leaves downtown a smoking crater. 'Q&A' finds vocalist Jesper Skarin at | | his most rabid, hissing intonations through clenched teeth, stressing | | every consonant leaking with pure rage. | | | | From there on out, The Islands enters more psychedelic territory, | | employing more cyclical patterns that nonetheless manage to stay | | interesting through the subtle evolution of the many textures and a solid | | sense of rising and plunging. Still, the back-to-back Speed of Images | | and The Map don t manage to hit quite as hard as the preceding material. | | Thankfully, there is Bodies to raise the bar with an excellent jagged | | and barbed hook, absolutely crushing and demented riffs, and the mad | | refrain of 'MASSES FOR REVIEW' likening packed public transportation to | | slaughterhouse trucks. It s a dark and mighty highlight before Melody | | Junkie bookends the album beautifully, asking 'What would be the melody | | we fight for and makes us disagree?' before answering the question by | | bringing back the synths from 'Passport,' mangled and distorted. I do love | | a good callback. | | | | The Islands is not pretty, polished perfection. The lengthier tracks could | | benefit from a shave, though the album does not feel too long overall. | | Some details leave me scratching my head, and the bewildering lyrics | | manage to be both on-the-nose in their expression and opaque in their | | meaning. But it's all part of the weird and wonderful nightmare the album | | pulls you into. It's rare enough to find a band with a voice wholly its | | own these days, but VAK pulls it off with daring authenticity, killer | | songwriting and absolutely rancid atmosphere. The Islands is an absolute | | treat and one that I will definitely make room for in my year-end list. | \_____________________________________________________________________________/ ixxu!imp