VÁSTÍGR – THE PATH OF PERDITION

(Andy Synn walks the path of perdition with Vástígr, whose new album is out now)

Let me begin things today with a short aside, if I may?

The subject of this particular review is one of several excellent bands playing Ascension Festival in Iceland in July, which various members of the NCS extended family will be attending again this year.

Unfortunately, the festival is currently struggling with higher-than-usual costs and lower-than-average ticket sales, the combination of which have put the future of the event in serious doubt.

So if you’re still going back-and-forth about whether to pick up a ticket this year, now is the time to do so… and, to help encourage you even more, here’s some fantastic music you can expect to hear from Vástígr at this year’s festival.

As good as the band’s 2019 debut, Aura Aternitatis, was, there’s no question that The Path of Perdition is a superior album in every respect.

Darker, moodier, and strangely mesmerising (much of the album feels almost dreamlike in a way that is both melancholy and menacing in equal measure) Vástígr continue to provide a distinctive take on the Icelandic sound (despite being from Austria themselves), with songs like hypnotically hooky opener “Plunge” and its equally captivating companion “Chasm” making the most of their extensive, eleven minute run-time to explore a variety of tonal textures – some bleak, some beautiful – while pushing the dissonant side of their sound all the way around the curve to the point where it transforms back into melody once again.

But this focus on melody and atmosphere – as epitomised by the seething, soothing sounds of “Katharsis” – doesn’t make The Path of Perdition a “soft”, or “weak”, album, by any means, especially when the razor-sharp, icy-clear production gives every element and every instrument a steely, cold-tempered sheen, which helps the music cut through the airwaves the way a beam of light slices through the shadows.

Perhaps the highlight of the record, however, is the outstanding drum-work, as while the guitars twist and twine around one another to create a richly-woven tapestry of surging distortion and soaring harmonies – it is far, far too easy to lose all track of time during the aptly-titled, endlessly immersive “Eternity”, let me tell you – it’s the intricately-arranged percussive patterns underlying it all, marrying subtle cymbal work with spiteful, snare-driven rhythms, which provide many of the record’s biggest, and most welcome, sonic surprises.

Make no mistake about it, The Path of Perdition is a dark delight of an album, and while it certainly makes an arresting initial impression, its secret strength lies in how much it hides from you on first listen while offering just enough teasing, tantalising glimpses of everything going on under the surface to keep you coming back for more.