Every time I get a new album in my hand, woah in my music player actually (thanks to the “digital download”), the first thing my ears carves for is WHAT’S NEW? And this “What’s New” trauma keep chasing me until I end up with exploring the whole record and thus concluding if it was up to my expectations or not. Well, I got to explore this Split EP of Albatross and Vestal Claret. I’ve heard of Albatross as the side-project of Workshop’s Bassist but VC was totally new to me. But that didn’t hinder my views about this EP. This is basically a Heavy Metal/Viking Thrash Metal piece of sound and the principle forces at work in inspiring this malevolent collection of sickening tales are among the more extreme fringes of thrash metal, namely Slayer, Sepultura and Kreator.

I’ll start off with Albatross part first, “The Kissing Flies”:

Track 1, Wither – This is the intro of the Albatross part of the EP,  and as these guys tag themselves as “Horror Metal”, the intro is quite horrifying. Take it in a good way; the sound effects are used quite intelligently here. After the cursed laughs, vocals enter after 30 seconds which are more deepen and it really sets a dark scene for what is to come.

Track 2, Uncle Sunny At The Tavern– This track starts off with some pounding guitars, drums and bass. Traces of the Slayer influence show here, at least to me. I see it a lot in the riff work & the drumming. There is the main solo of the song at around 03:25 and the lead guitar work is plagued by an all but 100% plagiarizing of the Slayer formula of frenzied shredding and whammy bar howls. Vocals are combination of clean singing with some high-pitched screams and there are screeches at some point.

Track 3, Kissing Flies– Title track always has expectations on its shoulders and this track did carry them for a while. The intro is melodic, rhythmic chanting the name of the track. Again the problem I see is that the verses are too repetitive and follows the same pattern for a long time(around 2 minutes in the previous track ) making it a bit boring for the listener. Vocals also are felt to be a bit over-thrown in the sense that the screams are not louder enough to match up with the rest of the sound. The bass solo, hmmmm at 03:32, felt really good with buzzing sounds of Flies giving the track a better taste. In fact the bass is just flawless in the whole record and is mixed pretty well. Growling can be heard for the first time in this song giving it a darker touch. Overall it is a good track with some good guitar work (including the solos) and drumming is also an important element in making this a good one to listen to.

Track 4, From Ashes Comes Life– A 8 minute song, From Ashes Comes Life could be a good in creating atmosphere, but is simply too long and a bit dull, after all. Starting with groovy sound of guitars and dual vocals, it though sets the atmosphere but fails to take it further. 5 and half minutes in and it shift gears, entering into mid-tempo sections with growls and psychotic high pitched shrieks. The song’s structure is felt to be a bit strange for me here. The stand out for me personally in terms of the song construction throughout the EP, is the illogical, unplanned solo’s ripped through, and the aforementioned “Horror Metal” – brilliant!  Easily sounding as though taken from a raw record from the late 80’s.

Now, it’s Vestal Claret’s turn:

The Only Track, Black Priest– Being the only track, it is around 17 minutes long. The secret of quite long songs, from 6 to 13 minutes, is simple yet catchy riffs and compositions and distinctive mid-tempo sections. Here in this track melodies and riffs reminds of the heavy metal of the 80s. The song starts off with palm-muted power chords followed by melancholic guitar tones reminding me of late 70’s Pink Floyd’s sound. Soon after there’s the chorus with loud guitars and again the song drives into the cleaner sound. The same pattern is followed till 7 and a half minute with a melodic guitar solo in between. The song shifts in dynamics thereafter getting a bit faster tempo with some heavier guitar riffs. There’s a guitar solo at 11:33 of the song, this time more technical rather than melodic which tries to build a frantic and paranoid atmosphere to some success, but it honestly gets tired after first 30 seconds or so. The same is felt with the track after the solo gets over and it enters into the cleaner guitar tones. A dramatic pause at 15:00 and the song picks up its outro with the intro riffs played again till the sound fades out.

For me a good song is the one in which I keep a check whether the song is about to end so that I can press the Re-play button to listen to it again and honestly speaking this thing was missing out in the whole record. Although the performances are good by the artists both as an individual and on whole but still something was felt to be missed out.

These guys have bought a new energy and this energy is refreshing in metal, and in turn stands out to the listener I think. Although not the most original in structure or riff construction, it still retains element of creativity and zest. I wish both Albatross and Vestal Claret a very good luck for their future works!!