ALBUM REVIEW: Layil – Insane Vesper

INSANE VESPER are a French band that formed in 2002. Layil is the bands second album, and at six tracks long also doesn’t veer too far from the textbook, with a fair amount of blast beats, just the right harsh vocals and solid guitar play with great black metal riffs. The record quality is appropriate for this day and age, but it doesn’t go away from the raw sound of the old school black metal. Will Layil prove to be a step up in INSANE VESPER career however?

The first track Blood of the Moon starts with this vibrant sound, creating this sound bubble before the first riff begins. The song goes to a great solid black metal sound, with blast beats, vocals and riffs working together creating the feeling of dread and passion until the end of song, giving it a great atmosphere.

Layil‘s second track, Of Serpent’s Embrace, is definitely faster in pace. The song introduces more quality riffs and plays around with different emotions this time round, as opposed to dread. The track is definitely more vibrant and powerful in its sound. Keeping on with the fast pace, Seed of Inanna throws in more powerful black metal riffs towards the listener. The album is very consistent by this point, not dropping quality at all and providing amazing continuity to the feeling of the album.

Fourth track, Scorned Ascension, is in some ways braver than the faster songs on the album. The speed is just a tiny notch down, and at this point you should know what the album is about. There are yet again some solid riffs, good drumming and real raw black metal vocals.

Sink the Ark of Knowledge, and The Circle are both really good black metal songs in their own right, made by talented group of musicians. INSANE VESPER definitely know what they wanted to make and they did a solid job creating just that. There are no real complaints about the record musically, instead it gets caught by the same snags that every by-the-books album does. It becomes predictable and stale at points, but mostly this album does everything to a top quality level.

Sometimes it can be good that bands make textbook songs and albums, because many don’t want to lose the essence of sound that black metal has provided and INSANE VESPER know how to do it. Sometimes that is all that is needed to create a good album. A good, solid black metal album.

Rating: 8/10

Layil is out now via Art of Propaganda.

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