Vukari, a black metal group based out of Chicago, have just released their third full-length album through Vendetta records. I’ve been following these guys since the release of Divination so I was very excited to hear this new album to say the least. This album is composed of eight songs and clocks in at a whopping fifty-five minutes but don’t let the lengthy runtime scare you away from listening to this monster because it has some of the greatest pacing in black metal that I’ve heard in some time. It feels very cohesive and flows very well together.
I don’t often find metal acts that truly capture a sense of self-reflection and yet also exhibit grandiose feelings of power but similar to how I interpret the music of YOB, Vukari also capture this element very well. It’s as if when you put their music on it promotes many thoughts within you, something I find plenty of artists miss. The main reason I listen to music is to evoke any kind of emotion whether the artist displays love, fear, existentialism, dread, or sadness to name a few. I’ve always felt different listening to Vukari and I felt all of those feelings with their second full-length, Divination but here it is much more apparent.
Aevum is by far their greatest and most consistent work and it was such a pleasure to listen to. This album features some of the most gorgeous guitars, supremely well-written riffs, drums and Vukari’s unique vocal style. The songwriting is just phenomenal on this thing. It’s hard to find any songs that don’t truly have something unique and different from each other song. Vukari have written some absolutely gargantuan tracks that feel like they spent a great deal of time composing and polishing this amazingly fluid record that feels like it’s telling the story of an individuals life and the struggles they face.
Vukari stand out from the rest of black metal groups out there at how they take traditional aspects from black metal but always put their own twist on things so that they are constantly innovating a sometimes very vanilla genre. These guys take risks and no risk they’ve taken has failed. This is perhaps one of the greatest records you’ll hear all year and you’d be a fool to ignore it. This is definitely going to be a record people will look back at in the future and truly recognize its importance to an often stale genre of music.
Bandcamp: https://vukari.bandcamp.com/album/aevum
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/vukariband
Youtube Track: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zYDNOa_byIg
