In Vain-Currents(Album Review #3)
Introduction
Here we fuckin' go. This is what I've been waiting for since I heard the first single. New In Vain. Love these guys. This album came out 3 weeks ago but I never really had the time to listen to the entire thing. Honestly, I had some idea of what I personally wanted this album to be. It wasn't even close to that, and I loved it.
Review
We got seven songs this time around. The opener, Seekers of the Truth, was super brutal black metal but still keeping that death prog feel. I love the riff in the verses of this song. And the drumming in the intermissions is amazing.
Then the band takes it down a notch with Soul Adventurer that features Matt Heafy of Trivium who sings 90% of the song. The song has a beautiful melody and again, I really like the riff in the verses. The solo was good, but not as good as some other songs. The chorus is kind of catchy but what makes it really good are the harmonies. This song features clean vocals for the most part and is the only song that does so on the entire album.
Ok, so, I have to say, In Vain lyricism is not poetic and we have to accept that. That isn't necessarily bad, but the lyrics at the start of Blood We Shed were so funny to me. "There's a time for reconciliation and there's a time to shed blood. Now it's time to shed blood". That is so funny to me and I don't know why. But, that aside, this is one of my favorites of this album. There are parts that are brutal and there are softer symphonic parts and I love it. The ending with those growls without instrumental behind was awesome.
Then you come to the middle point of this album that is En Forgangen Tid(Times of Yore, Pt. II). And with the fact that I don't understand anything in this song lyrically, I absolutely love it. The chorus of this song is my favorite part of this album. There are some rock guitars in there which I appreciate, it's a great song with a great solo at the end.
And then we get to Origin which is the song I didn't connect with so well and I don't know why. What I can say is that it really isn't the same as the other songs and that goes for the entire album. All seven songs are really different which adds to the appeal of the entire thing.
As the Black Hordes Storms is the best song on the album for me. I love the guitars, I love the way they laid the vocals over the instruments in the final mix, I love the style of the vocals they used, I love the solo. They did everything right and I did keep this song on repeat for a couple of hours.
Album closes in the perfect way. Huge song to finish it off. Standing on the Ground of Mammoths is that perfect closer for your progressive album. It feels big. That acoustic part in the middle of the song was great and the way it lead into that high pitched scream made me feel things I didn't feel before. I think this song has the best outro of the album. Which is fitting because it's a closer.
Final Word
Overall, loved the album, but not for the same reasons that I thought I would. It definitely exceeded my expectation, it was a great listen. Huge recommendation.
Hmm... I think I liked Orphaned Land's new album better than this one.
Best songs on the album:
- As the Black Horde Storms
- Standing on the Ground of Mammoths
- Blood We Shed
Album Rating: 90/100 - Must Listen
If you liked the review, drop the upvote and follow for more. Tell me what you think about Currents in the comments below.
Picture of the band
The album cover image is a cover of an audio recording, and the copyright for it is most likely owned by either the publisher of the work or the artist(s) which produced the recording or cover artwork in question. It is believed that the use of low-resolution images of such covers
solely to illustrate the audio recording in question.
All rights go to In Vain.