VIRUS -

VIRUS - THE BLACK FLUX - SEASON OF MIST  
The label or the biography does not mention it, but some of this material was original meant and composed for Ved Buens Ende. With the two bands sharing members of course and after hearing the material this information is not surprising. Barely metallic in nature this new Virus (one of the more unoriginal monickers in metaldom) is the work of alternative mongers wrapping themselves in jazzy drum beats, hard strumming intermingled with hypnotic and repetitious rhythms and a singer whose pompous and self-important proclamations would do well at a beatnik festival. With little variety amidst the songs the burden of entertainment and impression is upon the band’s chosen style and that is aimed more at ambient rockers than purveyors of anything ballistic. Fine for what it is, but in a world of narcissism is there a market for pomp and circumstance from without? Ironically, the most variety is provided courtesy of the band’s rhythm section, but both the bass guitar and the drum are buried in the mix and only heard with some active attention. Take Ved Buens Ende, Voivod’s vocals gone even softer, the offbeat last Gorguts album lost in a haze of heroin and add the commercialism of the new Enslaved and in rushes The Black Flux. - Ali “The Metallian”