[Reaper16]

34.) Vektor – Outer Isolation


Arizona’s Vektor play a sort of hyper-musical progressive thrash metal. It has all the speed and aggression of thrash, and their vocalist has a high-pitched shriek that would make Tom Arraya of Slayer jealous. What sets them apart is their brazen, off-the-wall musical talent. I had a guitarist friend of mine, no slouch when it comes to shredding, kind of stare dumbfounded and ask “What time signature is that?” a couple of times while listening to this album. Vektor writes riffs that are just stupid complex. Listen to the track “Tetrastructural Minds,” linked below: the complexity is evident but it never gets in the way of the songwriting. That song – constantly surprising and in every way a completely classic, bad-ass thrash song – might be my favorite metal song of the entire year. The rest of the album, each track a bit overlong, doesn’t quite reach that track’s standard, but it is all a blistering, stupefying listen.