Vreid are one of those metal bands it’s hard to get excited about. Ostensibly a black metal act, in actual fact they are more latter day Darkthrone than a cursory glance at their Wikipedia page might admit. There is little ferocity in their work, and they aren’t kvlt because they don’t wear corpse paint in every photograph of them ever taken. Amateurs eh?
They also aren’t really that exciting to listen to, especially on 'Welcome Farewell'. This is all fairly standard meat and potatoes black metal infused heaviness, but it seems to think that it is something more. Opener 'The Ramble' seems to be vaguely purporting to something grandiose and distinct, but actually it’s just an average metal song with average vocals and average instrumentation and average hooks and the average level of imagination. Even the eight minute 'Sights of Old' fails to sound particularly expansive. This is what metal is like when it is played without a sense of being part of something greater than one’s own game. It’s solid but completely unspectacular.
Vreid do have some things going for them after all. Firstly they sound pretty great. The production may be clean but it also has enough grit to mean that the band don’t just give the impression of having come straight off a factory production line. The odd moment is also pretty catchy. The title track and closer 'At the Brook' are eminently listenable even if they do carry with them a whiff of the mundane. Whether they will keep you coming back for more is completely dependent on your personal tastes rather than the actual levels of quality on display.
All in all, this is perhaps just one of those records that do what they say on the tin. Anyone familiar with Vreid’s prior work will be pretty sure what to expect and on that front Vreid deliver with an album of solidity. There is something a little uninspiring about bands that churn out the stylings that dominate this record with such a lack of willingness to develop as a band, but that doesn’t make them bad, it just makes them dull, to these ears at least.
'Welcome Farewell' is out now via Indie Recordings. Vreid play London’s Camden Barfly with In Vain on 4th April.
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They also aren’t really that exciting to listen to, especially on 'Welcome Farewell'. This is all fairly standard meat and potatoes black metal infused heaviness, but it seems to think that it is something more. Opener 'The Ramble' seems to be vaguely purporting to something grandiose and distinct, but actually it’s just an average metal song with average vocals and average instrumentation and average hooks and the average level of imagination. Even the eight minute 'Sights of Old' fails to sound particularly expansive. This is what metal is like when it is played without a sense of being part of something greater than one’s own game. It’s solid but completely unspectacular.
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