Vicious Art
Fire Falls and the Waiting Waters
7.1
I've always liked Threeman Recordings and I've always liked Candlelight Records. Apparently they've always liked each other also, as now they've teamed up to bring the adoring masses plenty of great bands. Hailing straight from Stockholm, Sweden, Vicious Art consists of ex-members of Dark Funeral, Guidance of Sin, Dominion Caligula, and Jorgen Sandstrom of Entombed/Grave/Krux.
A quick listen and you can tell that this is music composed by veterans of the metal community. The majority of what you're getting is death metal played which follows Morbid Angel with equal reaffirming grip on old-school Swedish death metal. With their detuned rhythms, catchy leads, and a cacophony of growls and belches, along with plenty of neo-thrash and blast beats to keep the comparatively longer songs from becoming tedious, Vicious Art do a fine job living up to their namesake. Traversing the idea of being labeled as just another drop in the old-hat along with so many other groups trying to revitalize the sound of the early 90's, they incorporate a lot of variance by using jutting tempo changes and build ups; the break in "Fire Falls" being an exemplary example. On "Mother Dying", which could be mistaken for a saner and more tame song by one of the bands on the current Polish scene, the part that precludes the main verse sounds like something The Chasm would've written. The record ends with "Why Would The Captured Set Free The Flies", which uses a bluesy melody that ends with an artificial harmonic and develops into an appropriate groovy breakdown.
As virile as it is violent, Fire Falls and the Waiting Waters is an adept release that shows that Vicious Art are more than capable as a functioning unit and not just a project comprised of notable names. A solid album the entire way through - those who are enticed by acts like Bloodbath and Ribspreader should pay attention and seek out some samples.
