Review by Lawrence Stillman on August 4, 2024.

Thrash metal is commonly seen as a genre that is often aping the styles of the past, creating new styles of their own that often fall short (thrash/groove bands), or even becoming too lighthearted (Municipal Waste), in the complete opposite direction of what the genre created as (like Municipal Waste, but their music slaps so I cannot complain). But Vektor, on the other hand, took thrash metal and turned something old into something fresh, with added progressive elements to make it stand out from the others.

Outer Isolation builds up from the formula Vektor found in Black Future but improves upon it to make it something more sophisticated and complex and give the listener even more unconventional riffs and melodies to spice up the album. The album begins with yet another space-y passage of Voyager 1's recording of Saturn when it passed by before shifting into an ominous intro, from which the riff-fiesta subsequently followed. The album is full of excellent riffs that rapidly shift from frantic and fast to slow and methodical, but it never sounds too forced (aka sounding weird just for the sake of it), so it is always a joy to listen to.

Adding to the riffs, despite being labeled as a "prog thrash" band, the riffs have a sinister aura to them, akin to some black metal albums that are themed around space, like The Sad Realm of the Stars, but keeping the aggressive tone of what is usually found in thrash metal. This gives the album a more serious feel than most thrash metal albums that try to recreate that 80s sound, so it ended up making this album more unique than the rest.

Instrumentally, the guitars here provide some S-grade thrashy riffs that have a death/black metal edge that gives it a distinct feel, but one thing that is often not brought up is that they tuned their guitars to F standard, which is above the tuning of typical thrash bands. This allows the lower layers of the overall sound of the album to be freed up for the bass, which of course results in the bass being quite audible (albeit it follows the root notes of the guitars a little bit too much for my liking). The drums here are nothing unique, but it is serviceable, which is what a proggy thrash metal band needs to allow the guitars to be shown off as much as possible. All of these come together to give the album the sound of early Death with the compositional characteristics of Symbolic-era Death.

To this day, there are no prog-thrash bands from the 2010s that can be measured up to the auditory entertainment that Vektor can provide; bands either ended up too proggy with too little thrash or the other way around. This album (and the other 2 Vektor albums) provides the perfect middle ground for both proggy sophistication and thrashy aggression with a blend of black metal-sounding sinister tunes. This album is definitely a modern classic, and anyone who browses this place should do themselves a favor and listen to this album at least once.

Rating: 9.4 out of 10

Review by Fran on August 4, 2024.

Hailed as one of the best bands from the thrash revival movement, Vektor’s style can be labeled as technical thrash metal with a strong progressive influence. The band’s sound however differs from any other bands of the same subgenre, old school or new wave. It doesn't sound like Watchtower or Toxik and it doesn't sound like Havok or Crisix. David DiSanto (guitarist and composer, the band's mastermind) managed to develop a unique songwriting style; mixing the traditional Bay Area sound with guitar synthesizers/effects and a Rush inspired use of scales that paint deep space sonic landscapes, very creative, he took all the points in that department but if I am obligated to use other bands as reference I'd rather say something more like Master of Puppets meets 2112.

2009’s Black Future, their debut album, ironically showed the band had a lot of potential and actually a bright path ahead. The musicianship from the other instrumentalists was also notable at first sight: the drummer’s executing dynamics are impeccable, a humanized machine. Elaborated cymbal work decorates every beat and the sense of musicality and logic used to define which tempo and beat matches every riff is extremely well thought out. The bassist is sometimes forced to play different lines compared to the guitars because riffing is so technical that there aren't enough strings in a regular bass to play DiSanto’s crazy ideas, so he simplifies a little using lower octaves but mostly he follows the frantic guitar riffing, anchoring the rhythm with the melody with a full understanding of the instrument's role. The low-end arrangements for calmed parts with clean arpeggios are interesting to the ear too, adding tension to the “wandering in space” atmosphere.

The guitar work is just as good or even better, weird chord arrangements are used to add glowing, acid, and saturated neon colorations that feed the sci-fi lyrics. By absolutely mastering the fretboard, it feels sometimes that songwriting for this guy has no boundaries but his mind. Short guitar licks are present at the end of some verses, long instrumental sections feature leads that adorn already amusing riffs and the soloing is extremely memorable. This kind of playing is a dying art, you better appreciate now that it still exists. Vocals are amazing too, high pitched, raspy, and sustain notes for several seconds perfectly tuned. Not the classic operatic heavy metal thing but still more technical compared with pure thrash vocalists.

Released just a couple of years later in 2011, Outer Isolation features the same line-up and playing style with enhanced composition abilities and catchier material. There are even some blast beats thrown occasionally but riffs aren't normally built around that beat. The album is very constant overall but Echoless Chamber and Tetrastructural Minds -that “Life is liquid when we are young” chorus section double-voiced by the guitars is killer- stand out as the best tracks of the record and the first hints of what was about to come with Terminal Redux, my personal favorite from the Arizona starlets. This phonogram is surely an interesting and worthy prequel to that instant classic.

Rating: 9.1 out of 10