When
Vreid's debut album,
Kraft, was released in the United States in early 2005, some black metal enthusiasts who bought the disc without having heard it wondered, "Will
Vreid simply be
Windir with a new name? Is
Vreid really
Windir minus Valfar, the
Windir vocalist who died in 2004?" And when they actually heard
Kraft, it became obvious that the answer to those questions was a definite, emphatic no. Make no mistake:
Vreid is a different band with a different sound, and that total lack of
Windir-isms is equally evident on their second album,
Pitch Black Brigade. Three ex-members of
Windir are present on
Vreid's sophomore outing, but stylistically, the only thing
Vreid has in common with
Windir is the fact that both are/were black metal bands -- and
Pitch Black Brigade, like
Kraft, offers a very different vision of black metal than
Windir's work. In contrast to the elaborate symphonic black metal that
Windir was known for, this 2005 recording thrives on rawness and is a throwback to the black metal pioneers of the late '80s and early '90s.
Kraft celebrated black metal's punk and thrash roots, and
Pitch Black Brigade does the same. Not surprisingly, there were some
Windir fans who were disappointed to learn that
Kraft had nothing to do with symphonic black metal; the very similar
Pitch Black Brigade won't win them over. A big part of enjoying this release is accepting the fact that
Vreid has no interest in sounding like
Windir any more than
John Lydon wanted
Public Image Ltd. to sound like
the Sex Pistols -- and those who can accept that fact will find
Pitch Black Brigade to be a likable, if less than groundbreaking, dose of thrashy, punky black metal rawness. ~ Alex Henderson