In a world of VHS, one-liners and enough movie montages to make you want to sprint up the closest flight of stairs, the 80’s vision of the future always promised one thing: It wouldn’t be pretty.  Yes, we’d have our flying cars however, our cities would ultimately burn and smolder from decades of pollution while technology would inevitably turn on its creators.  It wasn’t so much a matter of “if” as “when.”  Lord Vigo, the Epic Doom metal band out of Germany, is no stranger to 80’s pop culture, either.  With their moniker even a direct reference to Venkman’s enframed arch-nemesis in the Ghostbusters movies.  Their latest concept album, Danse De Noir, takes a sharp right turn from the cemetery of their past and accelerates full-speed into a bleak dystopian cityscape.

The band hasn’t traded their distinct doom metal roots for neon lights and synthesizers by any means.  Instead, they’ve emerged as a whole new organism.  Danse De Noir is rife with 80’s sci-fi tropes, sound bites, and vocals that ring with the cavernous echo of an abandoned cathedral hall.  Vinz Clortho’s lamenting vocals are unmistakably unique and integrate themselves perfectly into this new post-apocalyptic territory.  Bells chime beyond a cryptic gate on “Danse de Noir”, the first full arrangement of the album.  The song bleeds Doom from its tortured core while summoning the spirit of Candlemass and Trouble right from the start. 

With a nod to Queensryche, the epic continues with “The Verge of Time” and quickly establishes a bleak, precarious atmosphere throughout the rest of the album. The manic “And Then the Planets Will Align” is a violent sonic collision between good and evil with a tinge of NWOBHM stirred into the mix . “Between Despair and Ecstacy” takes another aural turn and goes full 80’s goth, complete with dark shades and a cowbell thrown in for good measure.  The story culminates with my favorite track, “As Silence Grows Old”.  Guitarists, Tony Scoleri and Volguus Zildroha embrace their cryptic roots and their inner Leif Edling, returning for their longest epic on the album.

Danse De Noir is a mesmerizing conceptual journey from an ambitious Doom metal band cutting their way out of the forest and onto the rain-soaked concrete.  Lord Vigo’s latest effort begs to be revisited as much as your boot-legged final cut copy of Blade Runner (you know, the version before studio execs got their grubby hands on it. No, not that one, the other one).  It is a cathartic soundtrack to play on repeat while cooking dinner for a family of four during this seemingly endless viral apocalypse that we’re all living through.  Stay healthy, stay safe, and keep your ears happy with Lord Vigo’s compelling ode to 80’s cinematic noir.

As always, rock on my friends!     Hunnypot Approved!     Overall Rating:  8.9 out of 10

Artist:  Lord Vigo,  LP: Danse De Noir,   Release Date: April 10th, 2020,   Label: High Roller Records