Plague of Cyprian is the brand new release from St. Louis instrumental rock/metal outfit Sons of Vulcan, and follows up their adventurous Perimeter Gods from 2017. The current line-up of the band features guitarists John Hardin & Tom Taylor, bassist Scott McBride, and Gunnar Swensen on drums. Plague of Cyprian contains five new compositions, including the epic 27+ minute "Woden Son", an adventurous riff fest of massive proportions, the two guitar slingers trading all sorts of blazing leads and power chord crunch while Swensen flails away alongside the rumbling bass of McBride. Pretty cool stuff that's tough to categorize, though you can detect some possible influences such as Rush, Black Sabbath, Fates Warning, and Opeth, the band able to switch from crushing metal, to prog, folk, doom, and '70s styled hard rock pretty seamlessly. "Immortous" is a galloping classic metal rager, one you can easily imagine vocals riding high over the top, one aspect of the bands music that I brought up when reviewing their previous release. Much of Sons of Vulcan's material seems ready made for vocals, and it's quite interesting that they've chosen not to go in that direction, perhaps even applaudable. "Ebon Spire" is definitely the track for all the prog/prog-metal heads in the house, chock full of intricate rhythmic patters, layers of guitars, and tasty solos, the band going back and forth between light and shade quite effectively. The title track is another dark heavy metal juggernaut, chugging riffs colliding with powerhouse drumming and blazing twin guitar majesty. In fact, both players really show off the great synergy they have together on the brief "Sword of Rome", a killer slice of kick ass classic heavy metal that seems to pay homage to the greats such as Thin Lizzy and Iron Maiden.
Muscular and vintage sounding, Plague of Cyprian is a wildly successful instrumental collection of heavy songs bristling with top notch musicianship and memorable melodies. Don't miss this one!
Track Listing
1.
Plague Of Cyprian 06:11
2.
Sword Of Rome 03:11
3.
Woden Son 27:17
4.
Immortous 05:31
5.
Ebon Spire 12:00
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