This week was a gift to loyal fans waiting for the newest installment of Vulture‘s impressive streak of albums since 2017. Dealin Death is no exception and proves that the band hasn’t lost any steam after their previous effort, Ghastly Waves & Battered Graves.
The melodic opening is the calm before the storm, unleashing into their trademark tone of relentless riffs and Mark Osegueda style vocals. Gorgon is a stand out track for its viking metal style, breaking away from its thrash metal theme and offering a crowd chanter in the middle of the album.
One thing is certain about Vulture and their splash onto the scene, they are learning from the best of the underground bands. Most fans are familiar with the online algorithm of metal recommendations. Listen to enough Flotsam And Jetsam or Havok and listeners will invariably fall into the depths of Artillery and Coroner.
Vulture is clearly an admirer of these hidden gems as they implement some of the peaks found on albums like Paradox‘s Heresy and Agent Steel‘s Skeptics Apocalypse. The German powerhouse has a lot of material at their disposal and they’re making the best use of it while retaining their original tone.
Another aspect on Dealin Death is the subversion of expectations. From the opening of Multitudes Of Terror sounding like a somber anthem to ending the album with The Court Of Caligula. The closing track has an almost up tempo vibe, with an equally melodic solo, describing the horrors of execution. A perfect anomaly that only thrash fans would understand the humor and talent in.
I remember the first sign of Vulture emerging from the underground scene in 2016 with their debut demo, Victim To The Blade, and being floored by their cover of the impeccable Rapid Fire from British Steel. The following year, we got their polished studio album, The Guillotine.
If Dealin Death had been the debut, it would receive equal praise from fans back in 2016 who were anxious to find out who these German trailblazers were, setting a new standard for metal the same as Enforcer and Skull Fist. The vocal transitions from Randy Rampage to John Cyriis of Agent Steel hook listeners instantly if the lightning speed galloping riffs aren’t convincing enough.
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