Chuck Schuldiner Project

Wednesday, April 6, 2022

Vital Spirit - Still as the Night, Cold as the Wind

Now this is a potent release. Vital Spirit are a Canadian black metal band who started as essentially a Wormwitch side project. The band has since evolved into something wholly unique. Inspired by the history of the bold American West, Still As The Night, Cold As The Wind is a fascinating and deep dive into a period and place often overlooked in black metal. The end result is black metal that leaves you in awe with visions of wide open landscapes and searing guitars tearing listeners limb from limb as they gaze into the darkness. 

Excellent album art aside, it's hard not to see visions of the Dollars trilogy as you listen to this record. Everything from Spaghetti Western inspired melodies to a certain desolation in the riffing helps to make this what the band calls "Saccharine Black Metal of the West". Vital Spirit have managed to encapsulate something pure and brutal. Song titles like "Dawn Of Liberty" and "Lord Of The Plains" make it clear that this is more than your standard black metal fare. Meanwhile the unplugged instrumental track "Saccharine Sky" is perhaps the most indicative of the record as a whole, resonating deeply with the bands sense of pioneering terror. 

Still As The Night, Cold As The Wind is a monumental and larger than life release. It's a record that speaks to a forgotten time and a sun cursed land, but also which is distinctly modern in execution. Vital Spirit have found a way to craft black metal that really speaks to their lived experience and which drags listeners into some of the darkest parts of the histories of the Americas. Get lost in this new offering, it's a stunner through and through, a record that fans of the underground are going to eagerly lap up for years to come.

Pre-order the album!

http://vitalspirit.bandcamp.com/track/dawn-of-liberty

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