The fourth album from Norways’ Vulture Industries has apparently been designed to address the stagnation of the metal scene. Which to be fair isn’t actually a thing. Sure the metal marketplace was over saturated for a while, and as such suffered from mediocrity, but that only supports its on-going popularity. We (the audience) ain’t sifting for gold here as we just wanna rock!
Stranger Times supplies some rocking tunes with a dark grand cabaret feel. You could even go as far as to say that the new Vulture Industries is a dark glam metal title. A thing that sharply contrasts the bands pseudo-miner image (as seen on the available photo shoot on Encyclopedia Metallum.)
The album also sports a verbose set of riffs that are fully articulate and with many different rhythms to set the pace and score the scene. However the melodies aren’t so eclectic. Yet for the most part their conveyance through the vocals does the trick in separating the methodical chord progressions. Vulture Industries almost try too hard to make this a serious metal record losing some of the appeal in their dark cabaret.
It must be said though that the compositions on Stranger Times are excellent. However their mood is flat. Staying on the darkly beaten path without too much deviation from the norm. Which for an album that claims metal is a stagnant scene you’d expect to at least traverse a few ways less travelled. It’s a consideration that could also be attributed to the dynamic range presented on the album, or lack of, or maybe it just needs more deer farts (cowbell for the kawaii generation.)
8/10
