Vale - Burden of Sight

Having made a booming impact with their short but effective 2017 self-titled debut EP, Oakland five-piece Vale was quickly picked up by The Flenser to release their first full-length project. The band’s debut album is a half-hour adrenaline ride of fast, gritty, no-nonsense black metal that wastes no time on pretenses or ceremony. Channeling the types of gargantuan, apocalyptic, tremolo-picked black metal rhythms and relentless blast beats that make Watain’s approach to black metal so searing from the heart of the homeland of thrash, Vale explode repeatedly and in all directions on this album to churn out a jagged and volatile assault from their very clean production. The stylistic approach the band takes to the album is definitely very cut-and-dry, with a heavy basis on the usual elements of old-school black metal in its modern form. The genre’s signature tremolo-picking, high-pitched and throat-shredding screams, and ride cymabal-driven blast beats are just as much Vale’s bread and butter as they are Watain’s and Gorgoroth’s, but the greater compositional dynamic compared to the crop of their peers is what makes Vale interesting and engaging on Burden of Sight. Sure, they’re really not stepping outside the box much, if at all, even in the compositional department either, and a little greater ambition there could certainly go a long way with the quality of musicianship and chemistry on display here. But for a straightforward, wild ride of ripping black metal enhanced by its clarity, Burden of Sight really offers little to complain about aside from its aesthetic blending in with genre’s masses. I imagine, though, that Vale will find ways to develop their sound to become more unique to them, in which case, I’m eager to hear it.
well-brushed canines/10

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