Vreid - Welcome Farewell Review

A thoughtful and engaging romp brought to you by the visions of former Windir members, Hváll, Steingrim, Sture Dingsøyr and Strom. A band who definitely deserve more attention than they currently enjoy, Norwegian black metal veterans Vreid are slowly but surely adding to their catalogue of great albums, and the latest Welcome Farewell is no different.

As well as sharing the Indie Recordings label connection, Vreid have a lot in common with Enslaved. They use black metal as the basis of the tone and sound of the music, but as a whole it is so much more. One of the first thoughts that popped into my head as I gave the CD its first spin was “This is how you would want a modern Satyricon to sound”, strangely enough their Norwegian brethren are currently releasing (as of September 2013) a new album via Indie Recordings.

Second track 'The Way Of The Serpent' has an attention grabbing “chorus” in the loosest sense of the word as it contains the title of the track but is not reprised at any time throughout the duration. The serpentine 'Sights of Old' uncoils with a menacing riff and fast paced attack, and then gradually and majestically evens out to a haunting drone of chords at the end.

Let's just hope the guy who posted “Heh, WHERE'D THE METAL GO?? This sucks.” on the YouTube page for 'The Reap' has his comeuppance. He is probably one of the twitching retards that cannot accept metal unless its at 100mph or contains 10-megaton breakdowns. Shame he can't realise the art of metal can flow with this intense speed and sometimes it's most shining moments as a genre are the ones of restraint.

One problem throughout is that the rhythm section, it does rattle and grate and some times sounds a bit like a demented Didgeridoo. It may not be as spellbinding as the majority of Windir's previous works, a but Welcome Farewell is a cracking album. It covers more ground in terms of different ideas and progressions that an average Windir album would, take the title track for instance, still maintaining its punch it manages to go from saccharine licks, quiet and quirky acoustic parts back to rumbling mid-paced groove again with an ease and confidence that must flow through these guys veins. It strikes a balance between big bold production and a raw, gravelly sound to make a very ambitious yet honest and realised record.