Vortex Of Clutter - The Ghosts Of A New Generation

With a strange name and a subsequently strange album artwork (by Greg Houston – who has also done a couple of Misery Index’s sleeves) that does not really tally with the EP release title; we have this Turkish death/thrash band Vortex Of Clutter. This is their most recent EP, the band already have and album, 2 EP’s and a couple of single release behind them since their inception in 2008. ‘Patriarchy’ starts very melodic death metal, then goes into a thrash phase before vocalist Gökhan growls into life. The opening riffs are commendable and very cool, I would like to hear a little less gruff in the vocal, but as a whole, it’s done well. This genre is very wide, and quite popular, there is a little task for each band to try and assert a sense of individuality, in their defence, Vortex Of Clutter hold their heads up high. I like the added melodic element and rabid fast drum beats leading into a soulful melodic guitar riff whilst you are still battered by some evil death grunts, the guitar work is consistent and respected.

Whilst I don’t find this release too engaging, I do find solace in something like ‘Abdal’, pinched notes, fretboard frenzied riffs and managing to settle into a rhythm that finds pace and variation sitting alongside each other. The vocals sound double tracked, maybe two singers, it works on a decent stereo, but on lesser systems you don’t hear any of these undertones. Not to be disappointed, the thrash pace intertwines with all those riffs, if anything, the vocals are too gruff for the style, or rather they are not as clear as they could be, I hear Brazilian thrash influences, you know who I mean surely! As pleasing as the former track is, things only improve with ‘Cocktail’, I hear some Skolnick (Testament) in there, as a riffing influence, and their pace is also matched in the arrangement speed, I am amazed when the clean singing comes in (I assume this is from backing vocalist Zafer), often sounding like latter Fates Warning for me. Their native or eastern influences come out in the acoustic section towards the end of ‘Cocktail’, but for me that should have been the end of the track; you can have an arrangement outstay its welcome!

The formula is repeated track after track, this makes this consistent, pleasing and shows a level of thoughtfulness, I do prefer the more classic metal vocals that rear their heads from time to time rather than the grunt of blackened death metal, that is not to say that destroys this release, it does have its own character and the greatest achievement of Vortex Of Clutter is to live up to their name. There are plenty of ideas, plenty of styles touched upon, these are masterfully arranged into tunes that gives the listener something to bite their teeth into rather than a bog standard bandwagon release. Room for improvement yes, but for now, this will do nicely, the band are certainly worth checking out.

  1. Patriarchy
  2. Abdal
  3. Cocktail
  4. The Ghosts Of A New Generation

Self released
Reviewer: twansibon
May 31, 2012

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