Released by Seasons Of Mist, The Tower is Vulture Industries’ third album. It’s also the third round of press that will compare them to Arcturus, which is both fair and unfair concurrently. See, vocalist Bjornar Nilsen sounds like Trickster G/Garm/Kristopher Rygg. A lot. So much so, I actually Googled just to check it wasn’t another alter-ego. It isn’t. We can move on now. Elephant discussed.
Other than the Rygg doppelganger thing, the Bergen troupe do evidence several other musical nods to their Masquerading-brethren including a similar mix of avant-garde off-kilter enhancement however, in expanding their sound, professionalism and establishing their own narrative and sense of the Carnivale, with the rich sounds of The Tower Vulture Industries are moving away from direct comparisons to stand in their own right.
Vulture Industries clearly know what they are trying to create, and their image, artwork and overall package is extremely coherent and appropriate while the music has the right gin-soaked cravat-and-braces vaudeville feel emanating from its pores. While producer, vocalist and songwriter Nilsen is star of the show, one minute sounding powerful and soaring on ‘Blood On The Trail’ the next wringing out deranged and disturbed Danzigian overtures on the 9 minute epic ‘The Hound’, it would be remiss to overlook the talents of the rest of the band. Clearly more than competent, and providing riffs, melody and clever slick dynamics in this foray into the sleazy and experimental, mixing Victorian Music Hall with adventurous and progressive metal all underlined by a sense of the theatrical, the rest of the Vultures are no mere sideshow players.
Dubbed as avant-garde Black Metal, it needs stressing that while there are roots in the experimental Norwegian scene that spawned …In The Woods and Ved Buens Ende, there is little or no Black Metal evident on the album, and that suits the Vultures, as whether it’s the tumultuous title track, the seedy Alice Cooper-meets-Nick Cave’s True Blood sleazy drawl of ‘The Dead Won’t Mind’ or the Mad Hatter taut, rowdy playfulness of ‘A Knife Between Us’, ‘The Tower’ delivers a string of convincing metal tales from the asylum.
8/10
Steve Tovey