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The Bottom Line

UK ambient death grinders release debut full-length album.



Pros

• Gorgeous instrumentals "Lux Et Tenebris" and "Aurora."
• Groovy alt splashes, psych fuses and non-metal interludes keeps the mix interesting.

Cons

• Bears plenty of the same 'ol metalcore, grind and deathcore tricks.

Description

• Released August 25, 2009 by Candlelight Records.
• Recorded at Fortress Studios, London.
• Recorded by Justin Hill and Dan Weller.

Guide Review - Viatrophy - 'Viatrophy'

For an album trying so hard to sound extreme, Viatrophy works equally hard on their self-titled debut to balance intently loud measures with melodic and sometimes ambient intervals which give a track like “Sea of Storms” extra loft and gust to a track otherwise running through a tried and true deathcore gambit. Then again, the two-minute instrumental “Aurora” is darned near spectacular with its whispering quietus bursting into an eloquent sway, which baits the listener exactly the same way “Lux Et Tenebris” opens the album.

What you get after “Aurora” is the stamping mosh of “Scenes of Extended Peril” which largely stays on thrash mode. Ditto for “Sufferance,” even if the latter drags into skidded breakdown clichés. “Futile Prayers” will likely impress most listeners with its reckless grind and Gothic sub-layers on the choruses, as will the psych-blocked epic nature of the 7:27 “The Final Light.”

Though Craig Reynolds has an extensive drum kit and his tom rolls are quick and abundant, there’s a decided leanness to his playing which both serves Viatrophy well as it keeps things sounding largely minimalist.

Even Viatrophy’s breakdown riffing from John Jones and band founder Gurneet Ahluwalia relays a primary imprint which with to easily escape into their more-articulated alternative-prog swoons.

Certainly The Cure, Ride, The Smiths and Isis have something to do with Viatrophy’s songwriting as In Flames, At the Gates and Bullet for My Valentine. Their disciplined defragmentation of sound to compose linear prog and trance-laden fills keeps this album from falling into a pit of gross over-familiarity. Their texture and gutsy cross-genre melding is intelligent enough to win Viatrophy a well-versed audience.