The future looks bleak according to Vreid.
With this new album, The Skies Turn Black, the band led by Sture Dingsøyr (guitar/vocals), Hváll (bass), Steingrim (drums), and Strom (guitar, Mistur) and born from the ashes of Windir, signs with Indie Recordings.
The album begins on a melancholic note with From These Woods, a long composition with epic sounds that start off fairly calm but then become much more virulent, welcoming equally ferocious vocals. The melodies make the mix intoxicating without softening it, giving it a majestic touch even in the airy passages before a final acceleration that leads to The Skies Turn Black, a more abrasive title track where clear vocals and leads create an interesting contrast. Pure aggression returns with A Second Death, a fairly rhythmic composition bordering on Black/Thrash that allows you to frantically bang your head while enjoying well-deserved breaks to scream in unison before returning to Kraken. Used as the soundtrack for the film of the same name, the track is fairly short but entirely instrumental, slower and more haunting, creating a heavy atmosphere before moving on to Loving The Dead, featuring the voice of Agnete Kjølsrud (Djerv), which gives a haunting tone to this long composition with very prominent keyboards. The riffs are still present at the beginning, but especially at the end when the guest screams to intensify the whole thing before Build & Destroy follows suit, returning to Sture‘s dark vocals and his haunting backing vocals that dance between the harmonics. The final moments are particularly aggressive, but the band gives us a moment of respite with the introduction of Chaos. However, once again, the mood changes when the song ignites, becoming a hell of saturation and dissonance reinforced by majestic keyboards. Flammen brings a more martial and even Old School dimension to its riffs, which remain very catchy, but the few parts of clear vocals will nuance the coldness before Smile Of Hate takes over to impose its rhythmic violence, notably with a unifying chorus. The calm will not come until Echoes Of Life, which offers riffs and clear vocals, a fairly soft base and a hint of heady keyboards before finally picking up speed a little to lead us to The Earth Rumbles, the last track, where we find the band’s characteristic dynamism wrapped in brighter layers, but also heady leads that will eventually leave us with a few choirs to join the end of the album.
Although Vreid kept us waiting for this tenth album, The Skies Turn Black is completely faithful to their roots. It features the rage, fervor, and energy we expected, but also all the beauty of their compositions.
95/100