This psychopathic breed of metal and punk, spiked with irate roars and deranged rants, makes for a pretty loud debut. Fall City Fall’s mathcore influences and the more frenetic fretwork are nothing remarkable, but the riffs are strong and the vocals immense.
A powerful double act courtesy of Nathan Zorn and Keenan Pylychaty gives Victus a dark and honest tone, and their bloody yells and Refused-worthy spoken-word tirades bring to mind the tortured ramblings of a man steadily thinking himself into insanity. Displaying the songwriting to match, Many Lives shows what these Calgary boys can do with an exciting instrumental interlude.
Taken twists itself cleverly and uncomfortably into overwhelming chaos, but it’s the exasperated, breathless vocal fury driving tracks such as Many Masters that leaves the deepest marks. Wild and uncompromising, if these Canadians have another album’s worth of songs in them to match the passionate execution of this first release, Victory are onto a winner.
