Reviews list for Vektor - Black Future (2009)

My vocal criticism towards modern thrash metal has been well documented over the last few years. If you may have missed it, I have a huge problem with thrash metal bands, old and new, that believe that it is simply acceptable to ride on the coattails of nostalgia. These sorts of groups never bother to push the boundaries of what thrash metal can potentially be, and they almost all do it with the same, heavy as hell guitar, no bass production. It makes a genre, which at one point was the pinnacle of heavy metal music, is now over-saturated with hundreds of groups trying to be the next Slayer, Metallica, etc.

Of course, there are exception, which brings us to Vektor, a Pennsylvanian based thrash metal band and their debut record, Black Future from 2009. This album borrows elements from many different sources to create what could have been described at the time as a one of a kind thrash metal experience. They were clearly trying to fit into the mold of bands such as Coroner and Voivod, but ended up making a genre all their own and one that is now being copied by groups such as Cryptic Shift today.

And where this album gets it right is in the production. For as simple a formula as thrash metal is, it baffles me how many groups can get this wrong and make the same mistakes with frequency. Vektor redirect this by giving the bass a very important role during the albums slower sections, and while the faster, pure thrash sections split the difference between riffage guitars, and real bass lines, allowing for the vocals and lead guitars to soar. And boy do they ever! David DiSanto has a real grit in his vocals that make these lines hit with authority. His vocal timbre is certainly an acquired taste however! If you recall Tom Araya's early days and the howls you would get on records such as Show No Mercy and Hell Awaits, well take that and put it on crack! These squeals are ridiculous and might put some people off, at least initially.

Vektor have a knack for songwriting and it pays off here. I really enjoy the form in which these songs are built and how every single note is given prominence. Vektor are not contempt with introducing an idea at the start of a piece, then modulate somewhere completely different and never return to that original idea again. "Black Future", "Deoxyribonucleic Acid" and especially "Forests of Legend" all have tremendous connectivity and should be commended. I will say however that some of these transitions do not work as well as Vektor thinks they do. I have a suspicion that many of these transitions were tried only one way. Sure, going from theme A to B sounds great, but what about going from B back to A? It does get a little disjointed at times, and the dynamics as well as sudden tempo changes leave me with a sense of whiplash. This seems to be a recurring problem even today in progressive music.

"Accelerating Universe" and "Forests of Legend" both highlight that Vektor are able to create long songs and have them feel unified. This is very important because, a long song that doesn't develop can get boring very quickly, but a song that jumps around too much can feel pretentious. And with that, I basically described my biggest problems with both thrash and progressive metal in the modern era SOOOOOOOOO....

I really enjoy Black Future by Vektor. I'm not going to call it my favourite record of theirs (that would probably be Outer Isolation), but I can see where this band was going and, even though a recent reality check has kept this band from doing anything for about five years, their presence is still felt in the underground of thrash metal today. Revocation, Black Fast and Cryptic Shift all owe a lot to Vektor.