It’s been a while (three years since the bands debut) with only a few singles and an EP but Vorbid, the Norwegian Annihilator, have finally released their first album. With five tracks and a runtime of just under fifty minutes half of Mind is contained in one salient track. Perhaps there’s some meta-magic going on here with this top heavy inverted penta-tracklist.
It’s easy to conflate craft with magic especially within the discipline of music and Vorbid excellently travel the umbra between craft and sorcery in Mind. The technical skill behind the album is apropos of the thrash genre with a serious intent to impress. And all while remaining extremely cogent with the energy and emotion of the genre. Although the album isn’t as socially aware or personable as more famous acts it’s a good study that displays a lot of potential.
What you’ve got with Mind are killer harmonies, a constant stream of arpeggios and beautiful breaks of melody. Layered with an interesting drum track that augments the passion of the blistering riffs. Mind is massive and it’s also wonderfully verbose. It has the complexity of classical music but the scope of modern heavy metal where the music really comes to life when Vorbid let the guitar sing.
Technically perfect and musically complex Vorbids’ Mind is a galaxy of notes exploding in synchronized colour. Drifting on universal winds.
7/10
