Viral Tyrant - Vultures Like You

Angry Metal Guy

Although it doesn’t often pop up on my reviewing radar or schedule, I am by no means opposed to sludge. Over the years I have consumed my fair share of sludgy goodness, from old timey favorites like the legendary Acid Bath, Eyehategod, Iron Monkey and selected The Melvins, to all manner of sludge-infected post-metal, rock and progressive acts of the sludgy ilk. However, sludge can also be incredibly frustrating and inconsistent, so I tend to choose my sludgy poison with care. Diving headlong into the promo sump, I decided to take a gamble on the debut album from Portland, Oregon’s raucous Viral Tyrant and their debut LP, Vultures Like You. Formed in 2018 the fiery four-piece have a lone demo and single behind their name, before arriving at this first foray into full-length territory. Being that sludge is a notoriously grimy, seedy back-alley style, let us dispense with the pleasantries and determine whether Vultures Like You is any good.

While sludge forms the core of the Viral Tyrant formula, the sound is cushioned by doom, dirty rock ‘n roll, blackened, and psychedelic influences to create a diverse and uncompromising experience. Rather than do things at half measure, Viral Tyrant unleash a mammoth slab of sludge-doom on ambitiously lengthy opener “The Felling of the Doom Tree.” It’s a thunderous tune, complete with thick, bluesy doom and sludge riffs, rough-edged vocal dueling, and nifty tempo shifts that display Viral Tyrant’s willingness to up the tempo and explore punkier, thrashy territory. However, it is pleasingly grounded by head bobbing old school doom grooves, psych flourishes, and the power of the mighty Sabbathian riff. Sure, perhaps a little trimming would not have gone astray, but it’s largely an enjoyable entry point.

Sludge can be accused of being a touch one-note. Fortunately, this is not an element that can be leveled at Viral Tyrant. The scorching guitar work of Dylan Fields and Eric Wallace mixes the classic with the contemporary, with their willingness to both embrace and break from the constraints of sludge and doom mostly working to the album’s advantage. For instance, the brooding sludge-doom stomp and anguished vocals of “Beloved and Beheaded” chugs along before unleashing a punk-infected thrashy groove in a potently effective escalation in tempo. Vultures Like You has an ugly, grime-caked sound and gritty atmosphere perfectly suited to their chosen style. At least in spirit, Viral Tyrant’s appealing sound has shades of the gruff, weighty edge of Crowbar and swaggering attitude and versatility of the underrated Take Over and Destroy.

The varied stylistic components stuffed into Viral Tyrant’s sludge-doom stew results in an intriguing potion worth indulging. Amidst plenty of strong moments and quality songs, self-editing does become a lingering issue across the seven-track, 51-minute opus. “The Great Traverse’ hits the pipe hard throughout a spacy psychedelic journey sans vocals. It’s a powerful showcase of Viral Tyrant’s psychedelic urges and stellar musicianship, and certainly features striking moments and gripping lead work. However, at nearly nine minutes long, the trip overstays its welcome. Similarly, the drawn-out “A Savage, Ensnared” is hampered by an extended intro and outro that go nowhere fast and feature some rather goofy and questionable vocal and spoken word approaches. Thankfully, the album rights itself on bruising and soulful closer ‘Blunt Force and Sheer Ignorance,” a lurching doomy behemoth, showcasing the multifaceted strengths, riffcraft and effective dual vocals of Viral Tyrant’s formula.

A crushing mix of the visceral, the suffocating and the grooving, Viral Tyrant possess the sludge and doom tools to launch a promising career, hinting at the potential evident in the band’s confident, well-constructed sound. Overall, Viral Tyrant succeed more often than not across Vultures Like You, featuring the qualities and songwriting skills to capture the interest of sludge and doom aficionados alike. The manner in which Viral Tyrant supplement their main weapons of choice with seething blackened, punk and thrash elements, along with ’70s inspired psych, makes for an intriguing listen, only marred by some self-editing concerns and a later album lag. Still, there is much to enjoy here.



Rating: 3.0/5.0
DR: 9 | Format Reviewed: 2304 kbps mp3
Label: Ripple Music
Websites: viraltyrant.bandcamp.com | facebook.com/viraltyrantPDX
Releases Worldwide: July 21st, 2023

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