Review Summary: Prepare Uranus because this thing smashes.
It’s been 5 Earth years since Vektor released their previous album, “Outer Isolation” upon this world and in the intervening time, the band have shaped what could possibly be the best gift of thrash metal delivered by any band, modern or old-school, since the millennium. That’s how big this album is. Factually, the size of this album is of a 73 minute duration but through the wormhole of riffing, melodies and lyricism, “Terminal Redux” always has a firm grasp of your senses.
In space, no one can hear you scream… Unless you’re David DiSanto, he lets loose his lungs at a jaw dropping magnitude throughout “Terminal Redux”. The lyrical and vocal qualities that made Vektor’s past albums successful lose none of their potency here. The trademark rasps are present in all tracks and his alienating shrieks, like in ’Cygnus Terminal’ launch the songs into increased intensity, however the lyrics remain clarified due the album’s excellent production. His futuristic approach of storytelling in such a visionary way is unparalleled in the metal scene and what’s more impressive is that the music itself matches this galactic imagery.
For the most part of the album, Erik Nelson and DiSanto shred at a speed that could make the Kessel Run in less than 12 parsecs. Tracks like ‘LCD (Liquid Crystal Disease)’ and ‘Pillars of Sand’ both have morphing melodies that twist unsubtly from eeriness to franticness however there are slower moments in “Terminal Redux” that allow the songs to take a breather and create space for the progressive elements of Vektor to materialise. The instrumental ‘Mountains Above The Sun’ is an obvious example with its starry melodies however it does serve as an excellent build up to ‘Ultimate Artificer’, which fires off at light speed immediately however it is also another track which exhibits the drifting moments. Each note in ‘Charging The Void’ mysterious interlude is executed with strong decisiveness and pinpoint accuracy.
Further credit has to go towards Vektor for being able to sound genuinely ‘heavy’ while playing instruments with their tuning turned up, not down. The whole band really is at their zenith on “Terminal Redux”. You could pick and chose songs that exemplify the meandering technicality of their riffs and harmonies but, frankly, every track fits that statement. During 'Pteropticon' Frank Chin’s bass sounds so audibly heavy it has its own gravitational pull and Blake Anderson’s octopoid drumming talent and blast beats throughout are spectacular.
The album’s two standout tracks come last. For the first time, DiSanto displays his clean vocals which exposes themselves to be in the same vein of Pink Floyd’s David Glimour which travels throughout the first half of the song. The second half is much like the rest of the album in that Vektor play at a furious velocity and completely annihilates anything in its way. The album closer, ‘Recharging The Void’ comprises of an entire album’s worth of ideas. From the explosive start, through a wormhole of interstellar riffing, solos and harmonies we arrive at DiSanto’s piercing screech. From then on it’s pure chaos that ends the album on an alarmingly intense level.
There’s a reason why no thrash band around today thinks to do what this band does: Vektor obviously hail from a superior world. SCI-FI OR DIE!
