Vola releases its highly awaited third album.
Created in 2006 in Denmark by Asger Mygind (vocals/guitar) and Martin Werner (keyboards), the band hired after Nicolai Mogensen (bass) and Adam Janzi (drums). Witness will be released on May 21st 2021.
The album begins with Straight Lines, a song that melts martial heaviness with the band’s Prog basis, creating a seizing contrast between the instrumental aggressiveness and the vocalist voice’s softness, then Head Mounted Sideways offers darker tones. The song is still based on a perfectly mixed low-tuned sound, but also on modern effects, and the output is very catchy, while quietness primes on 24 Light-Years, a song that embodies Progressive Metal’s essence. Technicality hints join an increasing intensity before brutally cease to come back with a last heady chorus. The ambience changes on These Black Claws, a song on which the band invites the Shahmen project, adding a dark Rap/Trap touch thanks to the man’s deep voice. Easily integrated to the band’s heavy basis, this addition makes this song a different but interesting one.
The band comes back to luminous soaring sonorities for Freak, a quite calm song that allow us to breath while enjoying this simplicity before Napalm, a song that melts airy sonorities with an energetic heaviness. The two sides perfectly walk together, borrowing to each other, then Future Bird offers some riffs that regularly burst into fire. It’s possible to see the flame running before the liberating explosion while closing the eyes, then complexity joins this rhythmic for some heady parts, while Stone Leader Falling Down goes back to those tortured rhythm parts. Screaming harmonics perfectly fly into those jerky riffs, that will be replaced by a chorus with impressive keyboards. Dark parts regularly take over, creating a weighing but majestic melting, then the album ends with the catchy Inside Your Fur. The song mixes very quiet vocals, some airy parts and still this massive rhythmic basis of the band, offering a final in the vein of their own style.
I first heard about Vola some years ago during one of their show, and I was impressed by the ease the band melts heavy riffs with very soft ambient elements. Witness confirms my impressions, and I know they will grow big, with their massive melting.
85/100