Description

Sweden’s Vornth are back with their second album and its nice to hear that they still have their frantic, black thrash sound that made the first album such a fun and furious album. “Black Pyres” is aimed at fans who, just like the band members, know what they want and dont give a damn about trends. This is ragged and raw sound of the old. Inspired by 80s German thrash metal mixed with Nifelheim. After a short intro the album breaks into the title track “Black Pyres” and immediately were thrown into the fire of the bands blackened speed and ‘strep throat’ shrieking of guitarist Erik Hartman. The man seems possessed when he spews, snarls and shrieks out his occult lyrics before stopping and doing a spoken word part, brilliant opening. The following two tracks; “Victims In March” and “Evil Woven In Spirit” continues to keep the pedal to the metal. Half way through the album comes “Grave Of The Living”, an 8 minute track were the band abandons their black/thrash altogether to produce what’s essentially a classic doom song. Trudging riffs and cemetery leads support Hartman’s grizzled attempt at singing before he climaxes with what’s best described as a melodic howl. It’s both chilling and outright awesome, and the remainder of the song maintains this ‘wow’ factor with plump-ass basslines and riffing reminiscent of early Black Sabbath. The track works perfectly in the context of the record but its soon back into madness again with “The Wolf, The Night”, “Traveller Of The Dark” and “Stormtrooper”. I love how Vornth performs their thrash metal so influenced by classic metal with soaring guitar melodies. At the end of the album we get “Serpent Flames” which yet again slows the tempo down and Hartmann returns to his deep spoken ways of telling the lyrics again. The album ends with the less than 2 minute track “Kleptokrat” where Vornth give all they have for this speed metal hymn. So when you’re ears are still ringing and you’re trying to sum up your first impression you realize that this album probably wont change the world but its a damn good follow up to their debut album and in my opinion i think the band delivered exactly what they aimed for. This is a thrash metal havoc with a twist and for fans of this kind of style its a blessing.

Track list:
1. Beyond
2. Black Pyres
3. Victims In March
4. Evil Woven In Spirit
5. Grave Of The Living
6. The Wolf, The NIght
7. Traveller Of The Dark
8. Stormtrooper
9. Serpent Flames
10. Kleptokrat