Album Review - Chaos Vector

The Great Metal Debate Podcast

Recently Summoner’s Circle released their third full-length album titled Chaos Vector. I’m really impressed with this release… there’s a lot of elements to like here and I’m excited about the direction the band is going with their music. I’m not certain how best to categorize the music of Summoner’s Circle, and definitely don’t want to pigeonhole them into some genre designation that might limit the listener from hearing the true extent of their reach. But I’ll say that it is music that creates heavy atmospheres instrumentally and vocally, primarily uses harsh vocals. Appealingly, in my opinion, Summoner’s Circle has a very European metal feel. If I didn’t know they were from the shadows of the Appalachian mountains, I might assume this band hailed from the of icy hills of Norway. Let’s dive in. The album begins with “The Message” – a minute long intro instrumental with ghostly spoken words that gives a quick hint of what is ahead. This segues into the first proper track, “Of Black Horizons”, which assaults the listener with dissonant chords presented in up-tempo fashion. As throughout the album, the vocalist varies his vocal style here providing a range of death growls, black metal shrieks, and moans. Too often in the darker metal genres vocalists trade aggression for range; not so with Summoner’s Circle, and it is a huge constituent of what distinguishes their sound. Both the vocals and instrumentals contribute to the album’s ubiquitously eerie feel, especially evidenced on tracks like “The Beyond” and “Vessel.” The later song starts and ends softly, between engaging in solid crunching guitars and blast beats. I appreciated how this track develops, including the tasteful, melodic lead break. On “The Beyond,” the album finale and one of the longer tracks at more than 7 minutes, the bassist keeps the low end thumping bringing forth perhaps the doomiest feel to the record. The short track “Chrysalis” also has a cool, spooky texture to it. There’s really not a bad track on Chaos Vector, with each song providing some variety yet still a cohesive feel. The title track has an angry, almost metalcore execution in parts, and I really like how the time-change mid-way through that gave the song more room to breathe. “The Heirophants” has almost a NWOBHM feel with the pacing and guitar melody, albeit delivered with a bit more brutality and black metal atmosphere. The apex of the album, in my opinion, is the song “Terminus Egress”. Clocking in at over nine minutes, this one is a real musical masterpiece and incorporates a lot of great components that, frankly, took me by surprise. Of particular note are operatic vocals, plus violin and viola, contributed by Julie from Canadian metallers Gone In April. While not inconsistent with the other tracks, the shift in tone and approach was something of a slap-in-the-face in a good way. The composition of “Terminus Egress” is magisterial; a beautiful melody with plenty of wicked riffs and anger for contrast. This one’s on my short list for metal songs of the year. If I had to characterize or label this, I’d call it epic symphonic black metal, although I think there are ingredients of many other styles which aficionados of doom and even classic metal would appreciate. As I hinted before, despite incorporating a number of more modern elements, I definitely hear some older school influences in the music. And that to me is always the best formula – artists looking forward musically, utilizing the best of the past in the mix without veering into the cringe of nostalgia. Summoner’s Circle’s Chaos Vector is available from Blood Blast Distribution. Check it out – you won’t be disappointed!