Vulture Industries – Ghosts from the Past

Vulture Industries - Ghosts from the Past Excentric Norwegian avant-garde rockers Vulture Industries are back with their fifth full-length effort. Can they once again surprise and entertain or has the magic been lost in the six years since their last album?

The first time I ever heard of Vulture Industries was back in 2015 when they opened for Arcturus in the Baroeg venue in Rotterdam. Both bands hail from Norway and both of them can be categorised under the avant-garde rock/metal denomination. Together with two mates we had driven all the way to Rotterdam to see Arcturus, and as one is wont to do with support acts you don’t know, we lingered in the back of the hall with a beer and zero expectations. Forty-five minutes later (and having experienced live madness and conga lines during Blood Don’t Eliogabalus) I came away a convert, and at the end of the evening left town with a new favourite band.

Vulture Industries’ largest trump, next to excellent and diverse songwriting, is Bjørnar Nilsen’s vocal delivery. One moment he’s wailing operatically, the other he’s whispering and hissing his way through the songs. He brings a hint of madness to already great material, elevating the entire band to a higher plane. Ghosts from the Past, the band’s fifth album by the band and the first since 2017’s Stranger Times, is no different. I sadly missed Stranger Times when it was released and only discovered it the following year, so it unfortunately missed out a review and a certified top spot in the lists. Ghost from the Past, after the first few spins, looks to remedy that though. New Lords of Light kicks the album off in up-tempo fashion. It’s an infectious rocker that packs a punch and immediately sets the mood for the following thirty-five minutes. It is also easily the most accessible and straight-forward song on the album.

Vulture Industries

Things get more interesting after that on Saturn Devouring His Young, which sounds like an eighties new wave song put through a hard rock filter, twisting and turning from crooning chants to a big, booming chorus and back again, with staccato riffing driving the thing. The moody This Hell Is Mine is the first big highlight of the album. It’s solemn and gloomy and builds up to a big climax complete with horns and guitar harmonies. Deeper, again with added horns, might be my favourite song on Ghosts from the Past. It sounds like Vulture Industries‘ take on an Interpol song. It’s big on tempo changes and benefits from Nilsen going complete over the top in his delivery. Although Deeper is still strangely accessible, it might be the weirdest thing on the album and I love it. The second half of the album starts with Right Here in the Dark, a big, groovy, mid-tempo banger with what is perhaps Nilsen’s best performance found on the record. It is being followed by the sinister Not by Blood, But by Words and the excellent nine-minute closing track Tyrants Weep Alone, which is basically the culmination of everything that came before (and features a ripping saxophone solo).

Vulture Industries does not disappoint one jot on Ghosts from the Past. The musicianship is once again top notch and the material is both diverse, with nary a dull moment in its forty-minute running time. In fact, the album’s flow is so good that those forty minutes absolutely breeze by, leaving you wanting for more. If this is your first introduction to the band, I have good news for you: there is more; four albums of it to be exact, and they’re all great. For now though, Vulture Industries has delivered another highlight in their ever expanding discography, and I can’t imagine any fan or newcomer coming away from this one disappointed.

Label: Karisma Records

Buy it here: https://vultureindustries.bandcamp.com/album/ghosts-from-the-past

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