Witheria
Vanishing Order

March 2011
Released: 2011, Violent Journey Records
Rating: 3.5/5
Reviewer: Luxi Lahtinen

The third album from the Finnish hybrid of violent and technical thrash and death metal, Witheria, basically took me by surprise, having no idea in the first place at all the guys would have their 3rd album in the works. This just proves it´s very hard to keep track nowadays of how many new metal albums are getting released all the time.



VANISHING ORDER is the title of these 5 relentless Espoo-based Finnish furious metal devils´ recent album – and it´s good to notice the band´s song writing pencils have stayed sharp since their 2 previous releases, INFERNAL MACE (2006) and PAINFUL ESCAPE (2009). Having listened to Witheria´s latest opus, I can safely say that they still deliver.



As it has become sort of a trademark for Witheria already, the band´s songs flow somewhat effortlessly forward like a trimmed bullet train, ready to hit and smash you. The guys haven´t had any intention to re-invent their well rolling wheel once again but keeping the old wheel rolling smoothly when noticing it´s still round enough is their aim, and making sure its crushing kill element is there, making some things to happen.



There´s lots of sheer, exploding energy behind Witheria´s new songs – and when one gets to witness an opening track like “A.T.D.B.T.S.”, which is an amazingly tightly played vicious beast, you instantly get an idea where they come from. The further the album progresses on, the more it can be noticed that they are also able to use some really nice melody lines within the overall aggressive nature of their song arrangements, adding bits and pieces even from traditional heavy metal and black metal (mainly vocally though) into the songs. What I really like on their new album, there´s more than just a few crumbs of crunchiness to guitars´ sound, which is always good in my books. Also, the importance of bass´ sound has also been paid attention to; it´s as audible as it should be in the first place, giving a necessary punch to the songs to reach a better level of richness and satisfaction, so to speak.



I guess it has become some sort of tradition to these Finnish fellows to close each of their albums with the lengthiest track – and their 3rd album does not make an exception to this rule either. “Timeless” clocks in at the 8:39 minute mark, and it´s also the most varied song on VANISHING ORDER; aggressive, fast and heavy from the beginning ´til calming down toward the end – and eventually ending up sounding almost too mellow by Witheria´s standards. Nevertheless, it´s a good closing tune from them, proving the band´s kind of chameleon-like skills as far as stretching their sound out of the typical norm is concerned anyway.



If you haven´t ever heard from Witheria before and like your modern thrash/death metal aggressive, heavy and melodic with enough variety, then be my guest and check VANISHING POINT out. You want it violent and aggressive – you get it violent and aggressive, with some balls.