Band: Vreid
Title: V
Label: Indie Recordings
Distribution: EMI
Release date: February 7th 2011
Review: CD

After the passing of Windir’s frontman Valfar, some members continued as Cor Scorpii (performing rather extreme Folk Metal), and some formed Vreid – we’re talking 2004. The latter are: Sture Dingsøyr, Jarle ‘Hváll’ Kvåle and Jorn ‘Steingrim’ Holen, in 2010 joined by former colleague Stian ‘Strom’ Bakketeig (also known from Mistur), after guitar player Ese left.

[note 1: some of them are involved with both Vreid and Cor Scorpii]
[note 2: all of them were involved with symphonic Black / Death formation Ulcus too]

Vreid, which is Norwegian for ‘wrath’, did release four Windir-inspired full lengths before, and last year a DVD got released as well. Shortly after the last recording, Milorg, Vreid did a European tour with Kampfar and Iskald (new album out on Indie! Look out for the upcoming review), a unique tour as guests for Pestilence’s reunion, and they performed on huge festivals like Inferno (which provided the material for the 2010-DVD Vreid Goddamnit), Wacken Open Air, Brutal Assault and Summer Breeze. At the end of 2009, the band played live in the US as well, performing on the Heathenfest-tour with Belphegor and Eluveitie.

This fifth album, simply called V, somewhere balances between the earliest years (think 2004’s Kraft) and the recent efforts (like the 2009-album Milorg), yet still clearly inspired by that legendary formation Windir. And again it sort of perfectionises the evolution once started with Kraft, and which has been the case since then, with every album. The massive and provoking hymns come with a rough, full yet decent sound (the recording sessions were done at bass player / musician / lyricist Jarle’s 1184 Studio, who did take of the production and mix himself). All of them are slightly complex, yet not of the modernistic or progressive kind; on the contrary, Vreid still dwell in 80’s/90’s-inspired spheres. Because of the sound, as well as the song structures, V comes with an obscure, rather macabre approach, and the lyrics, dealing with the history of ‘war’ in general again, are pretty unique. Idem for the performance: drums and bass, a varying yet sulphuric throat, slurring riffs and some atmospheric parts with keyboards and / or acoustic guitars, all perfectly balanced.
The reference to the early years has to do with the injection of Sepultura / Motörhead-influenced grooves (think Kraft and the second album, Pitch Black Brigade), more than it was the case with the last album. The reference to that latest full length is the less ‘Rock’n’Roll’-ish approach (in spite of several catchingly grooving parts and the seventies-sounding excerpts – listen for example to those keyboards and harmonic voices in The Others & The Look).
Oh yes, even though this albums seems to be pretty rectilinear in its totality, it does consist of even-minded multiformity (song structures, tempo, intensity, atmosphere).

88/100

Ivan Tibos.