Mountain-inspired metal? Well, sign me up for that! Vinsta Wiads is the debut album from Vinsta, which paints a landscape of the mountains of the Salzburg Alps in Austria. With vocals sung in the regional dialects of the band’s founder Christian Höll, it adds a more personal and unique touch to the music, and it’s a rather special listen as a result.
There’s a lot of emotion and passion to the performance from start to finish, and the clean vocals are a particularly great element – there’s a lot of body and power to them and they add a nice melancholic feeling to the album as a whole. Additionally, they pair up beautifully with the atmospheric violin sections – there’s a stunning ambient vibe to it all and it really works as Vinsta paints a stunning landscape over the course of the seven tracks.
Although all the tracks contribute in their own way to Vinsta Wiads, my personal favourite is later track Dei Ruaf, which features some great melodies to start before slowly progressing into a heavier approach with some harsh vocals for good measure, and the soaring guitar solos add an extra sparkle to it as well.
Vinsta Wiads is an intriguing and immersive listen – and considering it’s only Vinsta’s debut release, I’m already expecting great things to come in the future from them!
9/10
