Pariahlord – Vultures
Boersma-Records – 2022
Rock, Stoner, Metal, Prog
Rated: ****
Their debut five track release from 2020 was called Embrace The Misery and now the three amigos from German based Pariahlord are back with a new album entitled: Vultures. Eight tracks, and forty-five minutes of heavy rocking bliss. Released early September; I had them on my Doom Charts list for two months straight. And glancing back at the total lists of those months, we noticed that back in October they almost made the Top 100. Perhaps my fellow contributors did not discover them yet? Perhaps the fact that the new album is not on bandcamp yet has a minor part in that fact? Which feels wrong, cause the album is stunning! Title track opener Vultures, starts off with this highly recognizable, brain tease of a loose sounding bass guitar, reminiscent of Nick Oliveri and giving it a righteous introduction to what Pariahlord will offer you on the album. For there’s a lot of metal present in that opening track. Metal and even a miniscule touch of Metallica, whether that stems from the way the guitars run over that jogging bass, or the way the vocals sometimes seem to hint at early Hetfield. Either way, it’s online minute and brings out even more of the Pariahlord sound and gives that opening track a lot of juice. Which continues on, on following Dead Man’s Hand, another early highlight of the album. Slowing down the tempo, revving up the story telling and the atmosphere, the track immediately turns up the heat. The drawling vocals build this gunslinging character reminiscent of the one straight out of the Stephen King’s Dark Tower series. The rock is big, huge, the apotheosis of all huge desert and stoner rocking, errr rock. Hazy, blinding heat, it’s all there, carefully painted by that masterful guitar and the story told. Third track Super Mega Ultra Van, with a more propelling energy and bone-dry guitar, will once again surely strike a chord with every stonerrock and stoner metal loving fiend. It’s the following track This Is The Voice Of… featuring Robert Kingham of Minimum Labyrinth and Stephen Coates of The Real Tuesday Welt, that will throw you a curveball and sadly takes some of the momentum out of the wild ride that Vultures is. Distorted voices over another voice, going on for almost four minutes, perhaps setting the scene for the Fifth track Vrillon, but unfortunately does not seem to get the message across. Although, you are extremely pleased when that Vrillon guitar starts, and you will surely fall head over feet for the more prog infused track. Valley Of The Roses sees them coloring more with even more progressive kaleidoscopic psychedelic structures and grand sounds, offering to give more room to the vocals, and making them less drawling. That explosive ending building to a languid and tranquil release, and then bursting out again, until the distortion fades away, perfection achieved. Another definite highlight! And then the two-part Halcyon tracks bring the album to a grandiose close. Truly grandiose! I still can’t fathom why Pariahlord’s Vultures has not received more attention…
(Written by JK)
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