Review of VIGIL - Primordial Rites / Shadow Kingdom

 There is something rather unwelcoming about the way VIGIL approach thrash metal. Not because they are trying to make it extreme by today's standards, but because the music seems to come from a time when a band could sound genuinely vicious without having to prove anything through speed records, elaborate arrangements or some grand concept behind the lyrics. Primordial Rites is a pretty direct affair, and the roughness in its character suits it.

The vocals are a big part of that. They have an abrasive, almost sneering quality that stops the material from becoming just another exercise in retrieving old Exodus and Whiplash riffs from the archives. The guitars are firmly in that late-eighties territory, with the occasional lead break reminding you that thrash was never supposed to be all rhythm guitar and frantic drumming. VIGIL know the language well enough. Whether they have enough of their own vocabulary is another question.

I started losing track of individual songs before the album was halfway through. That isn't because the playing lacks energy; quite the opposite. The trouble is that so much of Primordial Rites operates at the same temperature. A good riff arrives, the band attacks it with conviction, and then the next one comes along without necessarily leaving much of a mark. “At The Stake” gives the record a welcome kick in a slightly different direction, and “Blood Dust” has a darker, death-thrash pull that makes it stand out from the surrounding material. Those tracks made me wish VIGIL had taken more chances with the arrangements elsewhere.

Then there is “Sanctum”, an instrumental placed just before the title track. It is an odd little breathing space on an album that rarely allows one, although the title track soon restores the full-speed assault. I can appreciate the decision to keep things uncomplicated, but simplicity alone doesn't make a song memorable. Some of these riffs deserve better songs around them.

Primordial Rites has the sound and attitude of a band that understands why old thrash still matters. It doesn't need a modern technical makeover, and the performance never feels embarrassed by its influences. What it needs is a sharper sense of when to break away from the attack and give a song an identity of its own. At the moment, VIGIL can deliver the violence, but too much of it passes in one long rush.

https://skrband-vigil.bandcamp.com/album/primordial-rites