Vreid – Welcome Farewell

Welcome Farewell

Did really two whole years pass since the release of the brilliant record V of the Norwegian Vreid? The Lyrics derive of the circle of life in short stories and the music clearly follows this model. What are the changes from the acclaimed predecessor and is this record still worth listening to?

The sixth record of the Norwegians starts nearly as clumsy as a newborn child during its first play through. Many things have changed and that’s not necessarily positve. Everything starts as expected though, as the intro of The Ramble clearly reminds the listener of the style and melodies of V. It doesn’t take much time to realise, that Welcome Farewell isn’t nearly as experimental, progressive and free though. The positive side is, that it clearly seeks the way back to the roots as the songs are mostly held in mit tempo with dark and raw sounds while being impelling and spirited.

While V was the clearance out of gridlocked patterns, Welcome Farewell confers the lyrical theme to the songs. This record clearly recreates the bands life cycle, without following a dull sequence, though. Every single song clearly features elements of their previous records, without being able to say “this song could have been on record XYZ”. It’s not surprising that not much of the experimental style of the band remained, as it only was a small glimpse in the bands history.

While there is nothing really bad about a virtual best-of record (for instance the last record of Einherjer was brilliant) there are some flaws on Welcome Farewell. Especially the transitions between harsher and calmer, more melodic parts, for instance in the later part of The Way Of The Serpent, seems quite artificial and sometimes even misplaced. There often is a dichotomy between the different playing styles, which is quite disturbing as well. That may be the only objective flaws on the record, as the band offers their typical playing style without repeating themselves or becoming boring. They feature even more rock elements and even some classical thrash metal. Sights Of Old features a lead riff that easily could have been on Metallicas record Kill ‘em All.

Conclusion:

Although I have listened to the record for several times now, I couldn’t really familiarise with the new record, which probably could be traced back to my expectations. Welcome Farewell offers a really nice profile of the bands musical history, with a clear focus on the early records. Therefore, the new and progressive style is only continued in nuances and sadly this was the elements I expected. Neither the less, I still find the record pleasuring and so should everyone who liked everything until now, or only the V or everything except that. If you never heard something of them before, you could easily start with Welcome Farewell. Let’s just hope, that the record title does not foreshadow what lies ahead.

Rating: 85/100

Date of release: February, 26th 2013

Vreid – Homepage

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