Vola – ‘Inmazes’ Album Review

It’s taken three years for Vola, the Copenhagen quartet, to perfect ‘Inmazes’, a wonderfully inventive mix of shimmering prog rock, taut industrial beats and Meshuggah-esque guitar contortions. Over the course of two Eps, Vola honed their skills, and the results are plain to see on this complex, lengthy epic. Spread over ten tracks (with the vinyl and digital formats offering two bonus tracks), the album is a rich tapestry that benefits greatly from being absorbed as a whole rather than split into its constituent parts and it is clear that the band spent a great deal of time drawing together their diverse list of influences to create something truly magical.

The album does not so much emerge as explode into life with the vast metallic roar of ‘the same war’. With clean vocals that draw on the likes of latter-day Opeth and Katatonia for inspiration, juxtaposed against the sort of crushing, complex riff you’d expect from Meshuggah, ‘the same war’ immediately grabs the attention. However, it’s not all sturm und drang and, as the song progresses, so the riffs mutate and expand into something unexpected and wonderful. The chorus is a rich, organic display of deft melodic nous and vocal harmony that sounds like a cross between Devin Townsend and the Von Hertzen Brothers. It’s almost too much to take in in one sitting as Vola explore the space surrounding that initial, monstrous riff, and it’s very obvious that the band are progressive in the literal sense of the word, taking their music into uncharted territory more often than not, and keeping the listener guessing every step of the way. ‘Stray the skies’, recently released as a single with beautiful animated video to boot (created by uber-talented bassist Nicolai Mogensen), arrives on a mid-paced, super-fuzzy riff underpinned by Martin Werner’s shimmering synth, only to stretch out, flex its muscles and deliver a stuttering riff that hammers away at the listener with real force. Once again, the vital melody that flows through the album like lifeblood is never far away and the chorus is a gorgeous, ethereal thing that glows like the mid-morning sun. ‘Starburn’ opens, like a music box, to an intricate melody that plucks at the heartstrings before Asger Mygind steps in with a riff that is as sudden and devastating as an earthquake. His lush vocals crack here, giving way to an awesome roar that sweeps all before it, and the result is a song that straddles the line between thunderous metal and star-gazing beauty in a manner reminiscent of Jolly, whose album ‘The Audio Guide To Happiness’ operates in a similar air of reified wonder. The very name ‘Owls’ implies a sense of dark mystery, and that is precisely what the track, delving into a cryptic, dark ambient, delivers before an energetic, springy riff once again tears off in a direction entirely opposed to what the listener expects. With an industrial sting in the tail, ‘Owls’ sees electronic elements and vocal effects used sparingly to embellish the music and the result is quite mesmerising, not least when the music drifts into dreamy, ethereal prog worthy of Pink Floyd towards its conclusion. In contrast ‘The mind is a helpless dreamer’, which closes the album’s first half, is a schizophrenic beast which offers up some of the album’s most decisively metallic moments, albeit tethered by a gorgeous melody that soars through the air even whilst the guitars snarl and spit.

‘Emily’, the album’s quietest moment, opens up the second half of the record and its fragile beauty stands apart from the churning riffs and adventurous experiments in sound found elsewhere. A dreamy, drifting lullaby that sets foot into latter-day Ulver territory, ‘Emily’ exists in an alternate reality where synths pulse and glitch in the darkness. Emerging from such a subtle haze is the pop-infused  ‘Gutter moon’ which offers warm harmonies pitched somewhere between Pink Floyd and Katatonia, arcing guitar riffs and even a hint of mid-eighties synth pop. It may sound incongruous, but such is the restless spirit of innovation that drives this band that you never doubt for a second their ability to pull it off. However, a storm lies ahead and ‘a stare without eyes’ desecrates everything with a riff of stunning brutality. Even here,  Vola are still unwilling to make it too easy to follow, and so the song moves deftly across a variety of musical landscapes before returning to a climax that strikes sparks as the guitars and hard-edged vocals combine. Taking a moment to draw breath, the album drifts into the hollow spaces of ‘feed the creatures’ which digs into latter-day Massive Attack and Nordic Giants for inspiration before exploding into a full-blown chorus that is worthy of Devin Townsend so resplendent with glorious melody is it. The album concludes with the title track, a bizarre, syncopated epic that somehow exceeds all that has gone before with its ever-shifting dynamic, gargantuan riffs and eerie atmosphere. If you ever needed one track to summarize the myriad strengths of Vola, this seven-minute masterpiece is it. It is a euphoric, inspirational end to a euphoric, inspirational album and as it fades form view the first thought on your mind will be to reach for the play button once more.

This is a remarkable debut from a remarkable band. Vola employ a variety of techniques and moods across the album’s ten tracks, and yet, despite the seething heaviness that underpins much of the music, there’s a wide-eyed joy in the way the band repeatedly pull the rug out from under the listener’s feet, one minute rattling the windows with coruscating metal, the next heading into outer space with glorious harmonies and taut dynamic shifts. Never afraid to experiment, it is a joyous sound indeed that this four-piece make, and the only reason this album is not receiving a ten out of ten is because it’s quite possible that these ambitious stargazers will go on to even greater things in the future. A genuine album at a time when so many labels seem to be focusing on singles, ‘Inmazes’ is a thing of wonder and beauty, and will undoubtedly be hailed as a classic in years to come. 9