VULTURE
“GHASTLY WAVES & BATTERED GRAVES”
Album Review by Iron Mathew

7/10

Vulture are a speed/thrash metal band from Germany formed in 2015, releasing their debut album ‘The Guillotine’ in 2017. The bands sophomore album ‘Ghastly Waves & Battered Graves’ was released in 2019.

Blistering guitars, screeching vocals and searing pace all combine across forty five minutes to deliver a sound not too dissimilar to a mix of thrashers Nuclear Assault, Forbidden, Exodus and Voivod. The album gets off to a scorching start with the high velocity ‘Fed To Sharks’ setting a fiercely furious pace as it hurtles along. Spitting fire and brimstone from every twang and thump, ‘Fed To Sharks’ is brutal speed metal with thrash nuances thrown in. If you’re looking for an easy listen you’re at the wrong end of the metal spectrum. Vulture are gonna shred your senses to pieces with their brand of razor sharp and vicious speed/thrash metal. To garrotte someone is to “kill by strangulation, usually with a wire or cord”, and in the mighty shape of the fierce ‘The Garotte’, it would appear that Vulture are aiming to do just that – using a guitar string…! The lacerations left by the bands brutal, and very sharp riffing, will need immediate medical attention, or else you may just bleed out…

‘B.T.B. (Beyond The Blade)’ picks up the pace and rampages furiously at high speed. Maybe the band are singing about spinning rotor blades, as the riffage on offer is as savage as those blades spinning through the air. Brutal, raw and uncompromising, ‘B.T.B. (Beyond The Blade)’ is vicious, and will kill without mercy – and if you think am just making these threats up, just remember that the official Facebook page for Vulture is “vulturekills”…enough said! Title song ‘Ghastly Waves & Battered Graves’ is six minutes of very heavy thrash metal. Darker and more menacing than what has gone before, ‘Ghastly Waves & Battered Graves’ (the song) is a mid tempo stomp of terrifying proportions, cutting and swathing a savage path through the airways. ‘Dewer’s Hollow’ brings forth a more traditional heavy metal sound than thrash, winking and nodding at the iconic NWOBHM guitar sound. Upping the pace and brutality levels, ‘Tyrantula’ sets off at high speed, flying at high velocity like a jet fighter off to fight a war. ‘Tyrantula’ is a fiery mix of the speed, thrash and traditional heavy metal sounds.

‘Stainless Glare’ is explosive, ferocious and raucous, and is one of the albums thrashiest mid tempo stomps, aligning itself musically with the Megadeth style of thrash metal. Picking up the pace and thundering along at speed, ‘Murderous Militia’ is head bangingly infectious and a brutal assault of fierce speed/thrash. Final song on the album is a cover version of a Thin Lizzy song – ‘Killer On The Loose’ from the bands 1980 album ‘Chinatown’. Vulture have taken the classic rock sound of the Irish band, and thrash metallized it, delivering a version that actually sits perfectly with the rest of the songs on ‘Ghastly Waves & Battered Graves’ (the album). If you hadn’t known it was a cover, you would have thought it a Vulture composition, such is the songs similar sound to the rest of the album.

Overall, a fast and furious gallop of ferociously brutal, high velocity thrash metal.

TRACKLIST

Fed To Sharks
The Garotte
B.T.B. (Beyond The Blade)
Ghastly Waves & Battered Graves
Dewer’s Hollow
Tyrantula
Stainless Glare
Murderous Militia
Killer On The Loose (Thin Lizzy cover)

https://www.facebook.com/vulturekills/

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