Guitar shredder Corbin King formed VAINGLORY around 2000 and did one album with singer Ted Brasier in 2001. It wasn’t until 2007 when the need album would come out and it’s essentially a new band as he teamed up with former Chastain singer Kate French. They make a great team as Corbin’s aggressive style fits beautifully with French’s melodically harsh vocal style.
In my opinion, Kate French has one of the great Metal voices out there, male or female. She’s got great range, but more impressive is her downright mean sounding delivery. Corbin is a well-rounded Metal player but he really seems to play “heavy” and attacks each song, much like French does.
What results is a form of Power Metal that ventures into new territory. Corbin can play super-fast, but he’s also fan of Dimebag Darrell of Pantera (R.I.P.) and most likely Zakk Wylde as well. When you blend the “groove” metal with pure speed and his compressed sound, it slaps you right in the face.
The song structures tend to have some Prog-elements, but they’re not too overcomplicated so you bog down the tracks. The choruses are there too so it’s got a traditional Metal vibe too.
Bassist Kevin Kekes and drummer Brian Harris provide a solid background too, even if the production is pretty guitar-heavy. The mix could have been a bit more consistent, but overall it sound heavy, nasty, aggressive and very METAL.
I appreciate the fact that it sounds very different that the European Metal, which tends to be almost over-produced in some cases. The rawness of this album are refreshing, it gives it almost a live feel, or at least you get an idea of what the band would sound in concert.
The album comes in at 12 tracks, with one instrumental “Decapitation Attack”, and a couple slower, grinding ballads. But for the most part it’s forward moving galloping Metal. “Walking Dead”, “Act Of God”, and “Blackened Soul” were my personal favs, but there’s plenty of other tracks in the same vein, the quality is very consistent throughout.
Bottom line, you have two extremely underrated people here, Corbin King and Kate French are extremely talented and both have a unique style and sound. I’m glad they’ve done work together and I can only hope they do more again in the future.