Genres: traditional progressive metal (clean vocals)
Recommended for fans of: Seventh Wonder, Circus Maximus, Dream Theater, Rush
Country: Norway
Release date: 8 March 2024
When reviewing bands as underground as we do, it’s always a nice change of pace to review a band who, above all else, are just really good at the whole making music business. No “diamond in the rough” nonsense, just plain old professionally performed and recorded music. In the traditional prog metal landscape a band like this especially gets me going because: one) it’s my favorite style of prog; and two) if you’ve spent any time on Metal-Archives digging for new music like I have, you’ll know that there is a lot of mediocrity out there (as well as my eternal rival, Tom de Wit, but that’s a story for another day).
Which brings us to Vicinity, a Norwegian band who take forever to release new music, and moreover, defy genre stereotypes by showing an ineptitude at math, given that VIII is only the band’s IIIrd album since their inception in 2006. To offset these cultural offenses, the band compensated by displaying an exquisite sense of prog metal fashion (band photo below), displaying a clean turtleneck and tightly fitting shirts, a sharp facial hair game (would you look at that mustache on the right), and a proper balance between baldness and carefully stylized haircuts. Oh what’s this? They also make music, you say? Yeah, I guess that’s more important, and, luckily, they’re pretty good at it too!
Right out of the gate, Vicinity show you that they mean business. They’ve got a professional mix that brings an older sound into the modern era, tastefully incorporating 80s style synths without the kitsch, and riffs that bring to mind 90s Dream Theater but with a much fuller, weightier tone. The band play their asses off in classic prog metal fashion doing all the intricate tempo and mood shifts we’ve come to know and love, but always keep room for melody, whether that is a lead synth, a guitar solo, or a vocal line, the band constantly keeps you engaged with ear candy. And they manage to do so without the slightest loss of complexity! Take opener “Promised Paradise,” for example. It does have a chorus, but it’s not given the typical weight in the mix, and the song goes through so many diverse moods and instrumental wizardry during its near twelve minute runtime that the song almost feels through-composed instead.
Continuing on, VIII proves to be a dazzling experience. Deliciously melodic lead play fills every pore of this record, and the drummer is no slouch when it comes to showing off either. Vicinity probably once heard Mike Portnoy say “My style is basically ‘more is more’” and then made that their mantra. The tones of their instruments are godly too: the guitars sound pristine, the drums strike a great balance between an earthy and a polished sound, the bass pops and is very forward in the mix, and, lastly, the bright synth tones are arguably what defines this record the most as VIII is truly drenched in both background and lead synths. On one hand, this mixing choice is essential in giving the band their identity in a saturated (sub-)subgenre, but on the other hand, it’s also where the problems begin.
While extremely dynamic on the surface, VIII has a strange homogeneity in its totality. For starters, the constant drenching in synths flatlines a lot of the tonal variety on the album. Take the tapping part halfway through “Confusion Reactor.” The idea is phenomenal, but the guitars are too far behind the synths to make a notable impact on the overall sound design. Sometimes keyboardist Ivar Nyland will pull out a diverse sound palette, such as the spacy synths on “The Singularity” or the piano break on “Distance,” but most of the time his patches are the typical Dream Theater type sounds but without the diversity and creativity that makes Jordan Rudess such a good sound designer. Only the heaviest of riffs are given the space to take over the synths, but given that they’re in a standard style for the genre, they don’t give as much variety to the album as I wish they did despite their quality.
The other aspect I really have to discuss are the vocals. Erling Malm has a beautiful voice with a strong crooning quality and pristine timbre very similar to Tommy Karevik (ex–Seventh Wonder (IT’S A TRAGEDY, I KNOW), modern Kamelot). He structures his vocal lines in a similarly difficult way to John Arch (early Fates Warning) in that he can run off with the melody independently while somehow still fitting with the instrumentals, resulting in less overtly catchy melodies than you’d expect for the style. My problem with his voice though is that he’s just rather meek, having the tone and the harmony, but not the grit or the range or the daring vocal runs that make my hairs stand on end. He’s like Ross Jennings (Haken, Novena) in that way (albeit with a better timbre): perfectly competent, but lacking the necessary edge that I want in a singer. Finally, he doesn’t get a whole lot of space in the mix amidst the instruments, homogenizing the album even further. Often I’ll barely even notice a chorus when it appears because of the synth drenching.
When I first started listening to VIII, I thought I had a potential album of the year contender on my hands for the playing and production is of an astounding level. Upon closer scrutiny, however, that turned out not to be the case. I love a lot of what they’re doing, but I need more diversity of sounds and less synth drenching. For those unbothered by my complaints, I can easily see VIII ending up on more than a few end of year lists. For me though, I will look forward to what they’ll come up with for their fourth album in 2030, tentatively titled: IX.
Recommended tracks: Promised Paradise, Confusion Reactor, Shape of Life
You may also like: Triton Project, The Pulse Theory, Pyramid Theorem, Universe Effects, Daydream XI
Final verdict: 7/10
Related links: Bandcamp | Spotify | Official Website | Facebook | Instagram | Metal-Archives page
Label: Uprising! Records – Facebook | Official Website
Vicinity is:
– Erling Malm (vocals)
– Kim-Marius H. Olsen (guitars)
– Ivar A. Nyland (keyboards)
– Pierre Nicolai Schmidt-Melbye (bass)
– Frode Lillevold (drums)
0 Comments