Vulcano
Stone Orange

Vulcano can be an Italian island or a Brazilian legendary extreme metal band that none of us really have heard about. Pioneers of their genre, leading the way for legends like Sepultura. They have nineteen releases to their name, and have been around for about forty years, that is perseverance and diligence. I probably would have been bored after a few years doing the same style of music, but I can admire the desire to improve one’s craft over the years even though I am not that kind of person. With the new album Stone Orange they give us an album with a cool artwork, something easy to notice and another thing I notice is that the band members look quite old.

Stylewise it is classic death metal with elements of thrash and heavy metal, it has more depth and variety than it would appear at first glance. The vocals are quite growly of the classical kind, the tempo is high on most part, the level of energy is fairly impressive. It has a retro-eighties kind of aura to it. The sound is quite raw, but fresher than something of the really old-school, but stylistically it is rather old-school. Creatively it isn’t really that exciting, is has some good moments but it sounds a lot like the South American style extreme metal do, with the same kind of undertone and feel. Still, they are forerunners in that style so it would be unfair to fault them for that.

Stone Orange is a good album, not fantastic or extremely memorable but good enough to be enjoyable. It is the best of the three that I have written about today until now, so it has some quality. I don’t think it is an album I will return to however, and it doesn’t really offer something creatively exciting. They once were pioneers, but even those tend to repeat themselves in the end. And I miss a standout song on the album, but there are some stronger and fine moments that makes listening to the album entertaining.

It is worth checking out if you like the extreme metal style of music, and perhaps particularly the South American style of said genre. It seems that these legends are still able to make music that is enjoyable and Stone Orange is an album that has more depth than it would appear at first sight.

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