Vreid: Wild North West

Vreid’s latest album evokes both a geographical and mental sense of place. It has some obvious thematic ties to the hardscrabble Wild West, but it is much more interested in the rigors of life in the dense and difficult mountains of the North. Indeed, the album takes listeners into the deepest and most unexplored spaces, the kind where one loses one’s sense of time and place and death seems everywhere at hand. To capture the band’s ambitions, they developed this release both as a concept album and as a movie. It tells the story of “E,� a character who enters into the Wild North West and begins to discover the strange ties between fact and fiction, life and death, history and fantasy. Developing an album that is both a concept and a soundtrack is admittedly risky, but Vreid has always wondered what else they can do.

For those who want to see the film, it can be rented (or purchased) online, but it would probably be even cooler to catch it on the road with the band playing through the album at the same time. There have also been some free screenings here and there, so keep your eyes open for others.

Does the album live up to its ambitions? Yes and no. According to some listeners, the story was somewhat hard to follow, and the musical ambitions weren’t as interesting as they could have been. For others, it’s just more classic Vreid: rousing and powerful and dark. I tend toward the second view. The band’s distinctive style of black n’ roll sounds great, particularly the way it takes things in a slightly darker and more intense direction. “Spikes of God� was especially intense, as were portions of “Shadows of Aurora.� Most of the other tracks develop, more or less, some aspect of the band’s classic sound. showcase the band’s classic sound. I especially liked the title track, “Wild North West,� “The Morning Red,� and “Into the Mountains.�

Even though I didn’t watch the movie, the album seems independent enough to enjoy on its own. You don’t need the visuals to appreciate Vreid’s blend of the heavy, the mysterious, and the psychedelic.

Track Listing:
1. Wild North West
2. Wolves at Sea
3. The Morning Red
4. Shadows of Aurora
5. Spikes of God
6. Dazed and Reduced
7. Into the Mountains
8. Shadowland

Added: October 4th 2021
Reviewer: Carl Sederholm
Score:
Related Link: Band Website
Hits: 1049
Language: english

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