Vile Extortion - Incoming Threat EP

The threat cannot come soon enough.

(Originally submitted to the Metal Archives on April 19th 2022)  

There’s this saying here that goes “If you don’t honour your home it’s going to come down on you”, and what better way to avoid that by covering a band that not only hails from Greece, but is also from the city where I’ve been living for the past few years? Vile Extortion’s a young quintet I had the pleasure of seeing open for Sodom not too long ago, and seeing as I enjoyed their music in a live setting, I decided to give their Incoming Threat EP a listen. But does their music hold up outside of a concert? After all, most music sounds better live so it's not the best metric to gauge quality with.

The answer is yes, mostly. The guys are really skilled and have a very clear vision of what they want to create, and succeed in doing so. Ripping thrash riffs meld together with ferocious tremolo sections, bookended by hefty breakdowns and sweeping melodic solos. It’s a winning combination, as exemplified by tracks like “Unholy Breath” and “Cry of Terror”, which house some of the EPs most memorable moments. The former of the two has this stunning long-winded solo near the end, while the latter boasts what is arguably the most crushing riff here. Like any self-respecting thrash band, they’re always going on full steam and rarely slow down outside of the occasional mid-tempo thrashy riff and the aforementioned breakdowns.

This intensity is provided in great part by the drums and bass, providing a very strong rhythmic backbone, as well as adding some extra flavour to the songs. Drummer Agis Tzoukopoulos is an absolute beast behind the kit, always blasting forward and laying some crushing double bass rhythms, such as on the previously mentioned riff from “Cry of Terror”. On the other hand, we have Nikos Domenikiotis’ bass playing, which is rather atypical compared to most thrash bass playing. He doesn’t resign himself to just following the guitars, instead opting to spice up the riffs, like in the opening of “Unholy Breath”. Seeing bass players go outside of their comfort zone is always a treat, and in this aspect Incoming Threat doesn’t disappoint.

What does disappoint though is the production. It’s not necessarily that the instruments sound bad, everything is fine on that front. The guitars are crunchy, the drums crush, and the bass clanks along, all with a really good mix that lets every instrument shine. Its true failing is how clean it is. Now, I don’t know about you, dear reader, but I enjoy some grime on my metal recordings, especially if they’re extreme in nature. It’s impressive that they managed to get a sound this crisp for what is a debut EP, but I find that it lacks character in that aspect, and a rawer production would really work wonders.

There’s also the fact that there are a few weak moments sprinkled throughout, despite the release’s brevity. We have the obligatory intro, that doesn’t add much apart from a healthy dose of cheese, with a “dramatic” spoken word opening by George Asphyx, and then we have “Mors Certissima”. Now this song is actually not that bad, I actually quite enjoyed it until the halfway point, where the band just decided to hit us with that awful stop-start breakdown. My brothers in Christ, you have already proven by this point in the EP that you can write a good breakdown, why did you go for that? I mean hell, there’s even a “bleh” before it, how much more cliché can you get? This type of stuff belongs to the metalcore bands of the mid-2000s, and it should stay there.

On the whole, Incoming Threat shows us a band brimming with potential. The songwriting skills are there, and for the most part put to good use, all that’s left now is to work out some of the kinks, get a little dirtier sonically, and they’ll be set. At the show, they mentioned they’re getting ready to put out their full-length debut, and no doubt it’s something I’m looking forward to. Here’s to hoping my home doesn’t come down on me now.

Highlights: Unholy Breath, Cry of Terror

Rating: 74%