Vilkacis / Turia

My interest was piqued in the Vilkacis/Turia split because I heard Vilkacis was shared a member with the fantastic USBM band Yellow Eyes. Turns out Vilkacis is the solo project of Yellow Eye's drummer. He isn't really known as a guitarist and I didn't know what to expect, so I thought I'd start off with a split before investing my time in the full length. Not only are Vilkacis pretty awesome, but I discovered a really interesting take on black metal with Turia.

Vilkacis's sound lies somewhere between normal USBM metal and Cascadian black metal - with the strummed acoustics and hippy antics cut out of the later. I don't think it would be a stretch of the imagination to say that Vilkacis falls somewhere between Yellow Eyes and Fell Voices, the two most notable black metal acts Mike has drummed for. He proves his worth on the guitar as well as drums, with long-form grainy black metal complete with longing, winding tremolo and touches of tragic melody. This is an impressive solo venture for the drummer and he does a great job at cultivating atmosphere through repetition and slowly unfolding melody. This isn't quite on the level of Yellow Eyes or anything, but Vilkacis is surely a project to watch out for.

Things get really wild for Turia's opening track "Tuchtroede". It starts off with a wave of smoldering raw tremolo and a distant drumbeat before it launches into biting melodic tremolo and rickety blasts. It's cool but not anything that unexpected. But wait, what's this? Weird, off-putting melodies start coming in on the guitar. They never really let out from there and it adds a really interesting, exotic vibe to the song. Apparently they are inspired by traditional Indian music, and they do kind of sound like a black metal guitarist trying to emulate a sitar while on a bad acid trip. The second song "Spiegel der Eenvoudige Zielen" (what a mouthful, haha) keeps thing does have a fair amount melodic guitar work running, but it's not usually as weird and most of the song hinges on pummeling tremolo and steady blasting.

Vilkacis/Turia is a pretty sweet showcase of two interesting black metal bands. Vilkacis is surely a project to keep an eye out for and Mike has proven he can hold his own as more than just a drummer. Turia get a bit weirder and the split is all the better for it. All in all, this is a very good split.