Style: traditional prog metal (mixed vocals)
Review by: Sam
Country: Ireland
Release date: 28 May, 2021
Everybody loves a good ol’ dumping on bedroom projects. Ain’t nuthin like tearin’ instrudjental solo guitarists a new one for how generic their riffs are, and repeating for the thousandth time that soloing dost not the songwriting maketh (think, djenter, think!). On the flipside though, whenever a solo artist does come out with something worthwhile, it becomes all the more impressive. Enter The Vicious Head Society, a solo project by Graham Keane. Now to call this an actual solo project may be a bit of a stretch given the plethora of session musicians featured on this, but all the writing and composing is done by Keane. This band has been on my radar for a while since they were featured on a Reddit series for underrated prog metal artists, so I was excited to finally have an excuse to listen to them as I saw that they had a new one coming up. So the perennial question is of course, does it live up to my own personal hype?
One thing’s for sure though, and that’s the immediate ambition that speaks from the opener. Starting your album with a 10 minute instrumental piece is a very bold move few attempt (reminds me of Dimhav two years ago). I would say it pays off though. It’s a very melodic piece with some good solos, and a good amount of melodic movement to prevent it from becoming stale. The next track shows us more what this band’s about, and sadly for me it was where I started checking out a bit mentally. The combination of chunky groove metal riffs, and slightly cheesy, slightly tuff guy vocals is just so trite at this point. Luckily the song keeps it a bit varied by including a couple harsh vocals along with some higher tempos, but the tone for me is set.
I hate criticizing an album for this since it’s very non-constructive, but Extinction Level Event just sounds so… generic. No other way about it. Everything about the record is well put together, but somehow it just completely fails to inspire. It’s hard to pinpoint exactly what causes this, but it’s there. Maybe it stems from my annoyance at almost everything groove metal and the faux masculinity that comes with it, or maybe it’s the norm-conformal synth tones, or the semi-deep prog lyrics (as far as I paid them attention) and their slightly cheesy, unauthentic delivery, I don’t know. Almost everything about this album seems by the book of spotless traditional prog metal. It’s all fine, but it feels devoid of character. There’s barely anything that sets this band apart from others, almost as if it was made by an AI based on a huge collection of Dream Theater worship bands.
I suppose that’s also a good thing in a way. All the tropes are pulled off really well. Each song is tight with a clear beginning, middle, and end, and there are hooks aplenty. You can also hear clear influences by other acts incorporated without sounding like a rip-off. The song “The Signal” has a very Subsignal-like chorus and synth tones, and it uses backing vocals in a very Dream Theater-esque manner in the pre-chorus. There are also the frequent Portnoy-isms in the drumming all over the album, and a bunch of the vocal hooks feel like they could have come out of a Threshold album. And despite calling the album generic, there’s still quite a bit of variety in here. There are harsh vocals and according intensity in a couple of songs, “Judgement” brings the Egyptian riffs in the bridge with some folksy drumming (and it’s a banger song in general), and the synth tones can get quite dreamy during the softer sections. They did a good job of not becoming formulaic with the song writing. Most songs are pretty distinct in structure.
The production and instrumental performances are also very astute. The album is very easy listening with how sonically pleasant it is. It has a clear, warm production where you can easily pick out each element (except for the bass, which doesn’t do anything notable as far as I could tell), and it has a good dynamic range against ear fatigue. A technically sound instrumental performance should go without saying given the genre, but I still wanted to shout out that the solos on this album are all very pleasant and melodic. The keyboards are also done pretty well overall, giving some of the most moving moments of the album even though they can be a little bit cheesy overall. The two instrumental songs on the album are definite highlights. It’s just that whenever the vocals come in, I feel like the music tanks a ton in terms of authenticity.
So to come back to the first paragraph, did Extinction Level Event live up to my excitement for it? In a way, yes. It’s technically very astute melodic prog metal that checks every box, and the fact that there’s only one person behind this is very impressive. But beyond that, no, absolutely not. If anything, it was aggravating how safe it was. I don’t mind cheese or even blatant worship, as long as you’re able to move me. Heck, Vanden Plas is my favorite band, and they sound pretty generic too in a way. Maybe I just had the wrong expectations for this and I’m being knee-jerk (all other reviews I could find were raving about it), but Extinction Level Event just missed me. Do give it a listen though if you like any of the bands I mentioned, it’s very well put together.
Recommended tracks: Extinction Level Event, Judgement, YP138
Recommended for fans of: Dream Theater, Threshold, Mike Portnoy bands post-Dream Theater
Final verdict: 7/10
Related links: Bandcamp | Spotify | Facebook | Instagram | Twitter | Metal-Archives page
Label: Independent
The Vicious Head Society is:
– Graham Keane (guitars, bass, keyboards)
– Klemen Markelj (session drums)
– Pat Byrne (session bass)
– Nathan Maxx (session clean vocals)
– Andy Ennis (session harsh vocals)
0 Comments