Loch Vostok – Opus Ferox – The Great Escape
Release Date: 25th June 2021
Label: Black Label
Bandcamp
Genre: Swedish Progressive Metal.
FFO: Judas Priest, Queensryche, Tears for Fears, Emperor, King’s X.
Review By: Séamus Patrick Burke
It’s always awkward when somebody new replaces someone who’s been around a long time, but it’s a bit different when that first person isn’t technically going anywhere. Teddy Möeller has been both the voice and hands of Loch Vostok for twenty years, serving as lead singer and guitarist while the band has been doling out their unique brand of electronic-twinged progressive metal for seven albums. Now things are getting shaken up as Möeller is stepping away from the mic in favor of singer Jonas Radehorn serving as the band’s new frontman. Imagine when Dez Cadena swapped out with Henry Rollins as lead singer of Black Flag so he could play guitar more.
Radehorn checks all the right boxes, not just with his former bands like The Citadel and Falling Down, but also having sung in Judas Priest tribute band Metal Gods. This emphasis on aggressive melody but also vocal clarity makes him a perfect fit for Loch Vostok, who refer to themselves as the unholy child of Emperor and Tears for Fears. But how does the actual music hold up?
Album opener “The Freedom Paradox” sets the bar pretty quickly and lets you know what you’re in for the rest of the album; strong drums, punishing riffs, lush sequenced synths, and enough vocal overdubs to make Freddie Mercury blush. Möeller may no longer be the voice, but he’s still got hooks for days. Radehorn briefly busts out the monster vocals, but the overdubbed parts where he sings in his natural register are easily his strongest performances.
This is taken advantage of on tracks like “Enter the Resistance” and “Generation Fail” (the former of which also lets new bassist Patrik Janson strut his stuff). In fact, forget Halford. While the high notes are pure Priest, Radehorn alternately makes the song sound like a duet between Geoff Tate and King Diamond.
Lead single “When the Wolves Have Eaten Everything” is when drummer Lawrence Dinamarca gets to show off, alternating between tight beats and double bass assaults, complete with military-style patterns during the bridge. “Galacticide” also has fantastic twin guitar leads between Möeller and co-guitarist Niklas Kupper, showing Radehorn isn’t the only one who can take cues from Judas Priest.
Titles like “Galacticide”, along with “The Glorious Clusterfuck”, are what help make writing reviews like this so fun. For the record, “Clusterfuck” is about politics, which will never not be relevant. It’s both hilarious and awesome to hear Radehorn’s soaring voice sing about, “The shitstain on democracy.”
If one must nitpick (and one must always nitpick), OPUS FEROX runs the risk all metal albums do by getting slightly homogenous with their aural intensity. “Seize the Night” flirts with a change of pace, with gentle synth bells and thick bass more at home at your local Eighties night. A little more modulation on his voice and Radehorn could be a solid crooner (the vocoder on the bridge doesn’t count). It doesn’t take long for the sick licks to return though, so the real reprise doesn’t come until “Save You”, and even then only briefly during the first half. Loch Vostok has never shied away from melody, so it’d be interesting to see them expand in these directions, especially since Radehorn is clearly up for the task.
In any case, OPUS FEROX is a beyond solid debut for this new paradigm in Loch Vostok’s long, storied history. Radehorn’s vocal diversity is a solid feather in their cap, and Möeller shows he’s still not short on ideas when it comes to the songwriting. It’s hard to be mad about a singer shake-up like this when the songs speak for themselves.
(4 / 5)
