Call of the Starforger

As more and more ambitious thrash bands follow the road of adopting space as their main theme, the obvious downside of that move comes with being inevitably compared to Vektor, at one point in everyone's career. Italian act Vexovoid, entering the scene with their still lone effort Call of the Starforger... actually doesn't do anything to escape those comparisons. As if it weren't clear enough from their 'similar artists' list, where the Arizona quartet can boast a ginormous lead, it's like the band's main aim was literally to mimic their sound as best as possible. Would you believe it?

Yes, the similarities are uncanny, although luckily never entering the boundaries of plagiarism. Especially axeman Leonardo Bellavista sounds like he'd been eating cereals and Erik Nelson's videos for breakfast every morning in the last year. Some riffs sound even crazier, like the one ending 'Hexaspark Fortress' or the main sequence of 'Quantic Rupture', which sounds like he disassembled the 'Asteroid' riff set and then proceeded to 'alien-ize' it even more. Most of them would be extremely difficult to even explain to an amateur guitarist, to say. One clear difference exists, though, as Danny Brunelli's vocals are a more conventional Tomas Lindberg-esque snarl, staying cautiously away from the ear-piercing, throat-shattering shrieks of David DiSanto. So, if you ever wondered how Vektor would sound with a less divisive frontman at the helm, this is the closest you might get to an actual answer.

Yet, this is no match for the real thing. Vexovoid did one thing extremely well – taking Vektor's most mind-fucking, lunatic moments and building up a whole album out of it. 'Omega Virus', 'Infinite Collector', 'Prophet of the Void', as well as the two above mentioned, are volatile concentrates of technical frenzy with a seriously intense approach, maybe even rivaling their muses in terms of sheer power. But without almost any kind of suites, buildups, ambient sections, or even clean vocals à la Terminal Redux, Call of the Starforger ends up being more of a lite version of said band. It doesn't help that the vocal department is a bit lacking in memorability, as the lyrics look more like sci-fi novels transplanted into the album. There's no such thing as a 'Spray of blood! In the air! Bodies fall!', basically. The only detour from the path appears in the middle, with the clean interludes scattered throughout the eight minutes of 'Galaxy's Echoes', but there isn't much more to it.

You know, when I first heard Outer Isolation and thought it should have been more concise, I was unknowingly thinking to something along the lines of Call of the Starforger. Unfortunately it's all a bit too samey to warrant the same enjoyment – you can take just about any second of it and it will likely sound killer, but it still doesn't change the fact that you'll only be able to discern the songs as 'the one with blasts', 'the one with the cool-ass riff', etc. Surely worth a couple spins out of curiosity, it goes without saying.

Side note: Vexovoid have been completely silent for 6 years now. I just hope they aren't imitating Vektor in their personal life too...

-review written for the 11th Diamhea Memorial Review Challenge – may you rest in peace, Chris.