Vektor
Black Future

This is a great super Thrash Metal album!

A child of the Eighties generation of Slayer, Municipal Waste, Annihilator but especially (see logo haha) Voivod, these Vektor, youngsters from Arizona, release this heavy, melodic, and really well-refined gem. Boasting a very good production, the album consists of nine tracks, intense, violent, and epic, mixing very technical Thrash Metal with Death Metal, riffs à la Iron Maiden, and progressive structures. The vocals of singer-guitarist David DiSanto are unpolished and high-pitched (reminding me a lot of Chuck Schuldiner's vocals), and the guitars churn out extremely fast and memorable riffs that immediately lodge in the listener's mind; the extremely precise drumming and bass occasionally providing very groovy breaks contribute to making Vektor's offering easily connectable to the '80s scene. Still, they add to these influences a freshness that ensures this record is not just another take on the Bay Area Thrash or the German scene, which many bands today release.

The title track, placed as the incipit, is enough to make us understand what we are facing. A set of dynamic riffs and straightforward solos tell Sci-fi synopses that involve the listener in a frenzied and frantic rhythm. "Oblivion", very Eighties-like, immediately strikes with the opening riffs that invite the listener to have fun and travel with the mind, following the swift guitar and drum patterns and the singer's killer screams. Opening with a slow and inspired start, "Destroying The Cosmos" begins, launched and groovy at the same time. It is a concentrated mix of violence and melody, fury and more thoughtful parts. Magnificent. The number of riffs present in the song is incredible. "Forests Of Legend" starts arpeggiated and melancholic, reminding me of Annihilator's early albums. It seems the classic Thrash song that begins with an arpeggio only to then burst into violence. I said "seems" because Vektor does take this scheme but much better. The song lasts 10 minutes and never bores, never violence for its own sake – it's simple and wonderful poetry. For me, the best on the album.

A bone-crushing track is the following "Hunger For Violence", which is followed by another gem from this album, "Deoxyribonucleic Acid". The shivering start is followed by precise and punchy but never too predictable rhythms. "Violative. Manipulation. DNA: The Ultimate Temptation!" repeats the good David agonizingly. As if standing still through that mosh blast which is "Asteroid", incredibly ignorant and angry, leading us to the final part of the platter where "Dark Nebula", airy and scourging warrior march in the starry sky, and "Accelerating Universe", a mastodontic thirteen-minute composition, strike for the peak of emotion (especially the last track), they manage to reach. A must-have album at any cost, Black Future; deadly and complex, it is one of the best modern Thrash Metal albums, which invents nothing but captivates with its genuineness and freshness.

Ode to Vektor!