Pilgrimage

These auteurs appeared at around the same time as two other similarly-styled outfits from their homeland, Pessimist and Scenery, with all the three acts intent on diversifying the more or less rigid death metal template with trippy, psychedelic, jazzy soundscapes. Their intentions were by no means the most innovative ones on the scene as this particular therapy was already completed on the works of Cynic, Atheist and Pestilence in the early-90’s, also opening a valve of creativity that later poured other visionary formations (Alarum, Pavor, Violent Dirge, Deflected Sense, Agretator, etc.) who were still holding onto the frayed ends of the death metal movement, some of them with just a few fingers, but all ready to jump into the musical unknown at any time, with no second thoughts whatsoever.

Hesitation was alien to our friends here from the very beginning who came splashing with their demo, a masterful exhibition of technical death metal wizardry, one of the finest 30-min in the annals of this sub-genre, containing no contaminants of any kind, sounding loyal to the not that voluminous in the late-90’s death metal roster; a stunning dress rehearsal for the eventual full-length that was to bring the freshly spawned Psycroptic and Theory in Practice nightmares for days and months on end.

One can’t be quite certain whether those would be real nightmares or pleasant dreams while listening to the album reviewed here as the formula has shifted towards very surreal, hallucinogenic vistas, a unique minimalistic approach that is quite comparable to the one on Pestilence’s “Spheres” and another ground-breaking opus, the mother of all things jazzy, fusion and otherworldly in metal, Sieges Even’s “Steps”. Like the mentioned Pestilence opus, this effort also tries to preserve at least a semi-tangible deathy frame on which everything else to evolve, and succeeds in deluding the listener that this may indeed be an unmitigatedly mutated listen from the demo, with “Fear” serving outlandish, creepy jumpy rhythms with marginally more aggressive excursions breaking the instilling “Alice in Wondermetalland” setting, the brutal guttural vocals another “back to reality” tool.

The delusion doesn’t last very long, though, as the compulsive brutal skirmishes from the demo remain just a memory once “Back in Myself” has passed, a very appropriately-titled introspective muser which steady, ultimately stylish riffage is bathed in fountains of dazzling melodic tunes, a work of beauty, definitely not death, which still tolerates the odd more dynamic dash. Dreamy balladic/semi-balladic jazzisms occupy half the space on “Garden of Consciousness“, the one and only soundtrack to the perennially residing in the pre-production purgatory feature based on Kafka’s “Metamorphosis”, a piece of composed surrealism that would enchant even Salvador Dali himself. The latter would have been more than passionate to paint his next masterpiece under the influence of “Passion”, a nervy spastic jump-arounder with a great fusion respite which instigates a wave of bumpy, jazzy/fusion variations ala Spastic Ink. and later-period Sieges Even, with spacey ambient atmosphere provided on “Surprised by Pleasure”, another diverse, both surprising and pleasurable, masterpiece of the “pensive psychedelia meets aggressive metalia” variety that would have been a highlight even on the mentioned “Steps”.

The sense of pervasive composure, the main binding motif, amazingly works the whole time, but only after one has adjusted his/her senses to the new musical formula here. The death metal fraternity will feel betrayed once again, for the umpteenth time, especially after the so boisterously promising demo… just when one rejoices with all kinds of firm death metal outfits emerging from all corners of the world at the dawn of a new era, comes another “jazzing/jamming with death” movement to pacify the growing wilderness. Apparently every ten or so years our beloved genre will have to go through such conspiracies stirred in its backyard, first by the mentioned holy triumvirate, and later by a bunch of post-innovators restricted to one small European country; not to mention the current one that has already spread over several years and continents.

The album here remains the finest product of this second diversification campaign as it’s rowdier, shall I also add deathier, than the Pessimist debut, and is more audaciously experimental than Scenery’s first coming which was still holding onto the more rigid, both death and thrash, metal canons the guys not that willing to drastically alter the scenery (no pun intended) from the get-go. At the same time, the band under scrutiny here packed up and left the scene the earliest, consolidating the (un)written rule that after such a transmogrifying album there was not much more to fight for, following the example of Pestilence, Cynic, and Atheist. Their cult status is probably bigger for that matter although both Pessimist and Scenery have hit some admirable creative peaks on subsequent recordings (Scenery, in particular, on the supreme “Mental Confusion”)…

waiting for the VUVR team to rise out of the ashes and respond to the challenge. Easier done than said, if you ask me… although it all depends on how far this spaced-out, dimension-transcending pilgrimage of theirs has taken them.

In my experience with extreme metal, Eastern Europe has been a minefield as far as obscure bands and albums go. As is true with virtually every style of music and every regional scene, there is plenty of run-of-the-mill, or even mediocre material to sift through, but it is always worth finding the bands and albums like this; the ones that stick with me past the average. Vuvr is a band that sadly only came out with one album before disbanding some years ago, and it is a real shame that these Czechs never came out with anything else, because on their record 'Pilgrimages', they show alot of potential. One part classic death metal and another part jazz fusion, Vuvr distinguish themselves from their peers, although I'm sure they would have gotten much better had they decided to stick around.

Vuvr's debut is a very promising album that does what a few metal bands have already done in the past; merging jazz music with metal music, in this case; death metal. The contrast between jazzy clean toned guitars and pummeling riffage is already something that had been done across the Atlantic by the likes of bands such as Atheist and Cynic, but what really surprised me with Vuvr's sound is that there are parts here that truly do sound like jazz fusion. By that, I mean that it sounds like its a real fusion band playing, not a rock or metal band that is trying out a new genre. This feeling is brought across mostly by the fact that there is just as much jazz, if not more, than metal on 'Pilgrimage'. I mean, there is still death metal here, but perhaps not enough to actually call it a death metal album. 'Pilgrimage' starts out much in the vein of a band like Atheist, although perhaps not as impressive on the metal end. As the album goes on, the jazzy element devours much of the death metal, and eventually you're hearing jazz instruments like saxophones playing in tandem with the guitars and drums. It was a bit shocking at first, and towards the latter half of the album, I was constantly on edge, trying to anticipate when Vuvr would change their sound back.

The jazz element is certainly Vuvr's best aspect, and the death metal here is quite good, although not excellent. As far as the death metal goes, they are above average when it comes to the strength of their riffs and the sense of direction, but when I will remember 'Pilgrimage' and Vuvr in the future, it will be the brilliant transition to jazz that I remember, and not so much the heavier side of things.

Although there seem to be a lot of jazz-metal fusion bands out there these days, there are very few that manage to maintain much real darkness in their music. Vuvr is a glorious exception-- even the pure jazz moments are often tinged with an eerie atmosphere. This ability to play very technical and diverse music while keeping a strong sense of atmosphere really sets Vuvr apart. They are one of the weirdest products of the great and very weird Czech metal scene. The music has a certain complexity and strangeness to it that I haven't really heard anywhere else. The guitars are often very heavy, but they are never straight-forward-- strange tones and arrangements are used thoughout, even in the heaviest moments. The vocals are generally of the low, gutteral variety, and fit very well with the music. This CD is tough to find, but the jazz-metal songs are worth the effort. Unfortunately, these songs only make up about 50% of the album-- the rest is devoted to clean jazz meanderings, which are fairly engaging in themselves, but not really something I want to hear in a metal record. It gives the album as a whole an unfocused and disjointed feel. I love fusion in metal, and diverse influences, but I think there should be a significant proportion of metal in there. The long jazzy passages just seem a little out of place. I guess this wouldn't be such a problem if they were interspersed more with the metal, but as it is, they go on and on, and leave me a little bored. Even with this flaw, though, this is a very unique album-- essential for anyone who likes the subgenre of avant-garde/ jazz-influenced extreme metal.