Vektor

stream Vektor's new album 'Terminal Redux'

by Joseph Schafer

I found Vektor in 2010, when they had just released their debut album, Black Future. At the time the band’s retro-futuristic mix of thrash metal and black metal with longform song structure and tremendous instrumental virtuosity floored me, as did vocalist David DiSanto’s ultra high-pitched vocals. Vektor’s originality in the face of increasingly conservative expectations from metal fans invigorated me so much that I gave their next album, Outer Isolation a glowing review here. When I wrote about the death of the re-thrash movement, one of the only bands I could think of taking the genre forward was Vektor, and that’s still true.

Terminal Redux is Vektor’s first album since then, and in the five years since, their notoriety has expanded like the gravitational range of a growing star. Their growth has merit behind it: Terminal Redux slays. It’s their first album of completely new material since their very first release, the Nucleus demo in 2004, and it shows. Much of the black metal fuzz has left their sound in favor of gloriously sharp and even more technically mind-bending riffs than before. This album is all of a piece and flows together–fitting, for a concept album.

People often compare Vektor to Voivod (who they just toured with), probably because Vektor’s logo is a direct throwback to Voivod’s, but that comparison’s not warranted. Voivod’s riffs are not this compressed, their delivery is not this savage. Comparisons to Destruction were more warranted. Now there are no comparisons. Vektor are their own science fictional beast on Terminal Redux.

The album comes out this week via Earache (pre-order). Listen to the full stream, premiering here:

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