Iteration EP, 2011

"The Greek black metal scene is spawning a lot of interesting projects and interesting releases these years. Vacantfield's debut release, the "Iteration"-EP definitely belongs to the category of interesting Greek black metal releases.

While rooted in the black metal universe, making use of a lot of the black metal aesthetics - such as the riffing, the use of dissonance, and the drumming style -, the three tracks on this EP are full of elements that might take some listeners by surprise. For instance, strange keyboard-, organ- and electronica-parts pop up every now and then, which definitely makes the music quite interesting sonically (in some ways slightly similar to Abhor's music), sometimes even coming across as lush (this applies especially to some passages of 'Worms of Sulphur' towards the end.

The vocals are also unusual for black metal, as the the vocalist makes use of a more guttural thrashy style of singing, combining it with an almost chanting and droning clean voice, which, to some listeners, might take some time to get used to. The overall sound production is also more along the lines of modern thrash metal than the lo-fi production that is typical of a lot of black metal, and there are also a couple of thrash metal elements to be heard on this release.

On the whole "Iteration" is a very interesting release that takes its starting point in the aesthetics of black metal, but add avant-garde and progressive elements the generate a quite original style of black metal. This is a very strong debut release, and it is going to be very interesting to hears future output from this Greek black metal act.

(review originally posted at metalmusicarchives.com)"