Vortex-Colours Out From The Emptiness

The Japanese are, truly progressive!

Funny I found this band long after this album was released. Here's another old review I wrote for Encyclopaedia Metallum(yeah,I bet you guys are bored of me mentioning that site). Enjoy it! I gave the album full marks. \m/



When you ask a westerner about bands from Asia, you would normally get answers like Sigh, Chthonic, Anthelion, and Infernal Revulsion but you would rarely hear the name Vortex. I’m quite surprised that this band never got fame in the west. Not to mention the lack of reviews on the web. This band, Vortex is one of the craziest jazz death bands I’ve ever heard.


Why do I say this band is crazy? The high technicality of this band of course! The first track, Stigma comes blasting in with furious double pedals but comes in with a cheerful sounding jazz riff, all distorted. The jazz riff then gets overwhelmed by death metal riffing and vocals. A jazzy guitar solo is also thrown in the mix and makes you feel blurry and not sure whether are you listening to metal track or a jazz fusion track. The next track comes in with a punk rock riff. This track has a slight metalcore touch but there are no clean vocals here. The fast paced double pedals are intact. The third track then transcends into a cross of cheerful sounding death metal and again, jazz. The fourth track, “Blind Faith” probably has the craziest stop start drumming of all. Think Decapitated’s Sphere of Madness drumming as the chorus of this track whiles the vocalist growls out “Blind Faith” a couple of times.


As I make my way to the second half of this album. I noticed a track with the title called “My Love”. I wasn’t so optimistic about it and I realized that my “instincts” were wrong. There’s a voice sample here done by a lady by the name of Golnaz Bahmnyal. I don’t know who she is but when she says "The only way to escape from blue isolation is
to close my eyes and imagine me dying..." the whole song transcends into a sad aura. Clean vocals come in courtesy of another person by the name of Timothy Baldwin. I don’t know who he is but the vocal resembles Dream Theatre’s Kevin James. The next 2 tracks are medium paced jazz rock fusion songs topped with metal vocals. The concept here is very interesting in my opinion. Whilst all the other 7 tracks are death metal-jazz fusions, the last track “Quest for the Endless Martyrium” is a pure jazz fusion track. There are no growled vocals but there are clean vocals. Due to his accent, this last track takes time to get used to. Pianos are used too in this track. This track is just like the ending credits of a movie. After watching all the action throughout a movie, a slow track calms the person down as the person walks out of the theatre.


To sum all things up, this album should be listened as a whole. There is an intro, the climax and a happy calm ending. Think listening to this as watching an epic movie. Another thing, the movie may be Japanese but the languages used are in English and doses of German. Think how Jackie Chan had to speak English in his movies. His accent won’t kill you.