ACTAEON

Aberrant Vascular are one of those strange metal bands that you occasionally find, in this case a band that combines the operatic vocals of Vladimir Lumi with keyboard led metal. Actaeon is the debut EP of this band and offers an interesting glimpse at the possibilities of this band.

This EP starts off with a few very unusual sound effects before diving straight into the heavy metal side of the band. Throughout both songs here, both of about 5 minutes in length, you get a lot of changes in the flow of the music, from fast and crushing metal to slower keyboard dominated parts. Over it all is the Operatic vocals of Lumi, interspersed with a few lines performed with a Death-metal style growl. The band definitely proves to be very interesting but both songs seem to sound very much the same with little variation in style and feel between them. I also find that the death-metal growls don't particularly work too well here, and whatever it is Lumi is trying to say is unrecognizable. The great strength of this band is its keyboard player, Sarator Rych, who shows a great ability to lead this heavy and eclectic sounding music on his instrument, and providing the only solos here. The rest of the band sound very competent at this without sounding particularly special.

I feel the band could benefit by extending the songs slightly so that they can explore their ideas better but overall this is an interesting EP that leaves you wondering what the band could do over a full album. Rather short at 10 minutes but decent enough, I'll give this 2.5 stars as something people should at least try if you have no problem with operatic vocals or death-metal growls, rounded down to 2 because it is very short and clearly has some space for improvement.