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TERMINAL REDUX

Vektor

Tech/Extreme Prog Metal


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Vektor Terminal Redux album cover
3.94 | 148 ratings | 9 reviews | 28% 5 stars

Excellent addition to any
prog rock music collection

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Studio Album, released in 2016

Songs / Tracks Listing

1. Charging the Void (9:11)
2. Cygnus Terminal (8:15)
3. LCD (Liquid Crystal Disease) (7:33)
4. Mountains Above the Sun (1:22)
5. Ultimate Artificer (5:04)
6. Pteropticon (6:00)
7. Psychotropia (7:39)
8. Pillars of Sand (5:19)
9. Collapse (9:22)
10. Recharging the Void (13:36)

Total Time 73:21

Line-up / Musicians

- David Disanto / guitar, vocals
- Erik Nelson / guitar
- Frank Chin / bass
- Blake Anderson / drums

With:
- Alex Poole / effects
- Naeemah Maddox / backing vocals (1,10)
- Rosemary Fiki / backing vocals (1,10)

Releases information

Artwork: Adam Burke

CD Earache ‎- MOSH553CD (2016, Europe)
2LP Earache ‎- MOSH553LP (2016, Europe)

Digital album

Thanks to siLLy puPPy for the addition
and to projeKct for the last updates
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VEKTOR Terminal Redux ratings distribution


3.94
(148 ratings)
Essential: a masterpiece of progressive rock music(28%)
28%
Excellent addition to any prog rock music collection(34%)
34%
Good, but non-essential (19%)
19%
Collectors/fans only (15%)
15%
Poor. Only for completionists (5%)
5%

VEKTOR Terminal Redux reviews


Showing all collaborators reviews and last reviews preview | Show all reviews/ratings

Collaborators/Experts Reviews

Review by Warthur
PROG REVIEWER
4 stars Vektor took some five years to polish their sound after releasing the excellent Outer Isolation, and I think it really shows here, with their efforts yielding a substantial improvement in their sound. In particular, the compositions allow for a bit more variation in tone, so it's not all screaming, shrieky blackened thrash metal all the time (David DiSanto even engages in some conventional clean singing at one point). With each studio album Vektor seem to get better and better, and Terminal Redux continues that upward trajectory admirably. I sincerely hope it doesn't take five more years for the followup to come out, because Vektor seem at the top of their game right now.
Review by UMUR
SPECIAL COLLABORATOR Honorary Collaborator
4 stars "Terminal Redux" is the 3rd full-length studio album by US thrash metal act Vektor. The album was released through Earache Records in May 2016. One major change has happened since the release of "Outer Isolation (2011)" as the band have moved from Tempe, Arizona to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The lineup has remained the same though, so no changes there. Vektor was formed in 2003 under the Locrian monicker, but changed their name to Vektor in 2004. After releasing some demos the band signed to Heavy Artillery Records for the release of their debut full-length studio album "Black Future (2009)", which almost immediately earned them underground fame and success. A success they followed up in 2011 with their sophomore studio album "Outer Isolation".

Stylistically the material on "Terminal Redux" pretty much continues down the same sci-fi themed technical/progressive thrash metal path as the material on the two predecessors. The band are very well playing, delivering their parts with great precision and skill. Fast-paced and heavy drum parts, thrashy riffs and well played guitar solos, and David DiSantoīs high pitched screaming vocals in front. Itīs not easy listening vers/chorus material either, but instead structurally complex and very adventurous tracks, which generally require more than one spin to sink in. But again thatīs nothing new if youīre familiar with the two predecessors.

What is new compared to the two predecessors is the use of clean vocals on the two closing tracks "Collapse" and "Recharging The Void". The latter even features some semi-operatic female vocals. The opening track "Charging The Void" also features something new in a choir section, which leads my thoughts toward Devin Townsend and his wall of sound vocal approach. So Vektor have developed some parts of their sound, but theyīve (for the most part) maintained their aggressive thrash metal authenticity. Itīs like listening to a combination of "The Sound of Perseverance (1998)"-era Death, late 80s/early 90s Voivod, and some of the mid- to late 80s albums by the German thrash metal triumvirate of Kreator, Sodom, and Destruction. Iīd say itīs slightly more melodic and progressive this time around, but itīs details and if you enjoyed the first two albums by Vektor, this one should probably make you happy too.

"Terminal Redux" features a well sounding production, and the musicianship is also of high class on all posts, so upon conclusion the album is yet another high quality release by Vektor. If I have to mention a couple of minor issues, it would be that the tracks are generally a bit too long and that 73:21 minutes is also too long a playing time for the album. If Vektor hadnīt opted to put "Collapse" and "Recharging The Void" (which are two of the most different and varied tracks on the album) at the end of the tracklist, my attention might have begun to wander. So while "Terminal Redux" certainly is a very impressive release, there is still room for improvement in the songwriting department. More conscise material, a few more hooks, and a shorter playing time could have done the trick (less is more). But donīt misunderstand me here, because those are minor issues, and overall "Terminal Redux" is still a very interesting and adventurous release, delivered by skilled musicians and a 4 star (80%) rating is fully deserved.

Review by friso
PROG REVIEWER
4 stars Vektor - Terminal Redux (2016)

Vektor is an US technical thrash metal / progressive metal band. I haven't heard another album of this band, but this conceptual space techmetal album caught my eye. I don't listen to anything much louder dan Iron Maiden that often, but I do like Voivod, Devin Townsend's Ziltoid and Pestilence. Vektor has a sound with a bit of every band mentioned here, but more fierce and speed death metal like. Furthermore, the vocals / grunts of David DiSanto are high-pitched and rasping in a way I never heard before. The guitars sound surprisingly mid- ranged for such a heavy record, which spares some room for bass-guitar in the mix.

The album tells the story of a rising ruler in the Cygnus part of space. Aiming for a society that is orderly and endless he first wages war with 'technogenetic' weapons and more traditional space weapons. Ruling with advanced mind control techniques the ruler slowly becomes aware of himself again after being sucked up in his own lifeless mind controlled society. After that he decides to introduce change and transience - knowing it will lead to his own demise and the end of his empire. Life is incomplete without death.

Impressive.. most impressive..

Every track on this seventy minute long 2lp is very technical and well written, but the real gems are in the beginning and the end. Charging The Void (9:11) and Cygnus Terminal (8:15) make up the first side with an endless stream of musical ideas and lyrics that work best together. When listening this album with the lyrics sheet it really 'opens up' so to speak. The music hasn't much space rock sounds, but when you get involved in the story you will start imagining galaxies and mind control devices. On the second and third side of the record the music gets into more 'regular' speed thrash death metal territories and I feel like the songs could have been a bit more concise. Still high quality playing, but it's not THAT easy to listen to seventy minutes of this kind of music. A bit more focus on melody and catchy parts would not hurt here. On side four Vektor treats us with two of the albums best songs. Collapse (9:22) starts of as a ballad type song. Yes it does, with clean vocals that remind me a bit of psych folk. The second part of the song has a lot of melodic death metal parts before being launched into the epic Recharging The Void (13:36) with some added female vocals and a great folky middle section. The lyrics on these two last songs form the philosophical crux of this concept album. The self-conscience and hopeful dive into self-destruction for the greater good makes up a great lyrical sheet for the intense ending.

Conlusion. This music is probably too heavy and intense for most listeners, but I really like this album and I think the concept and the music work well together. Vektor creates an album with moments of true epical proportions and impact. It requires six listens (ast least one with lyrics) to get into it, but it's more then worth it for me! In this niche of progressive / metal music this one of the best albums ever made I guess. Four stars, but I might come back to add another star later.

It's full of stars..

Review by siLLy puPPy
SPECIAL COLLABORATOR PSIKE, JRF/Canterbury, P Metal, Eclectic
4 stars Coming at ya in the space-time continuum around star date 6MAY2016, the prog + thrash = tech thrash Arizona based VEKTOR burst onto the scene back in 2009 with their attention getting album "Black Future," overcame any possible sophomore slumps with 2011's "Outer Isolation" and have successfully accelerated their tech thrash vessel into yet another sector of their bi-propellant yet harmonious blackened thrash metal world of Voivod influenced sci-fi adventures. The band deliver yet another competent display of musical maestrohood with their third release TERMINAL REDUX. While experiencing cislunar events along the way with forward light scattering, these brave individuals rejected all temptation to water their music down in any possible way and instead opted to experience simulated free-fall through fusion-fuel cell technology to deliver a fresh new trajectory of thrash metal for all to enjoy like an inferior conjunction of the near perfect syzygy of heavenly bodies, all the while exhibiting an ultrahigh frequency of their metal sci-fi adventures into the Van Allen radiation belts and beyond. BTW this was the first album released on Earache Records. Big step up, guys!

Right off the bat, "Charging The Void" slowly oozes into the listener's conscious with a short ambient clip before bursting out into full tech thrash fury appeasing any potential fears of "selling-out" as often occurs when a band like VEKTOR becomes quite revered and climbs up the metal ranks in a short time. No way! VEKTOR not only deliver the expected thrash metal hooks from the past bringing the classics of the late 80s / early 90s continuum to mind but more than up the ante in the most logical (Mr Spock would approve) and volcanistic ways but incrementally brings VEKTOR into a more sophisticated realm of the metal universe bringing them ever closer to zero lift trajectory, the most coveted position in the metal world where all a band must do is release an album and metal heads far and wide go absolutely bonkers over its mere existence. TERMINAL REDUX elevates the band into a yet more sophisticated stratum of metal madness. This album is a logical but NECESSARY extension of the VEKTOR continuum!

While the thrash elements that are on board inspired by Voivod, Megadeth and other past masters are in full regalia on TERMINAL REDUX, there are a plethora of additional elements that elevate VEKTOR's prog creds manyfold. There are more bluesy riffs that add an extra layer of catchiness (important in prog metal as experimentalism can quickly spire out of control and veer off into the void where only the most dedicated will follow), but also more subtle elements such as female vocals (although none are given and i wonder if there's some falsetto or OMG even hidden castrato elements going on here! On with the codpiece only clad iron!) As the album goes on i'm a little dismayed.

Hmmm. I really want to give this album a seal of masterpiece approval but i really just can't. It starts out really promising but then becomes a little monotonous in its delivery. Yes, every single track is a beautiful composition and all but the problem resides in the fact that they all start sounding too similar to one another and at a staggering length of 73:21 it is apparent for the prog metal enthusiast that this album needed to be trimmed down a bit to fulfill its entertainment value. While tracks like "Collapse" which deliver clean vocals and a subdued VEKTOR approach that allows a break from the frenetic tech thrash approach, it just ends up being too long of an album for the amount of effort put in. Simple as that. Yes, one of the most surprisingly discoveries on the album is at the end of the 10th track "Recharging The Void" with its tech thrash pummeling approach throughout the first when it totally turns into a non-metal soul track and actually delves into Pink Floyd territory which has become the popular thing to do as they remain one of the most popular bands in history. It ends with clean guitars, clean male vocals and a female in the background going "ooooo ooooo aaaaah aaaah." It does go back into metal territory but ultimately TERMINAL REDUX seems a little too calculated than divinely influenced. A great listening experience but not one that i could call a masterpiece. Thie trajectory of this band's albums though gives me very high hopes that they are indeed on the way UP and not just a flash in the pan. TERMINAL REDUX is very much recommended if not the epitome of perfection.

Review by Necrotica
SPECIAL COLLABORATOR Honorary Colaborator
5 stars To many, Vektor are essentially carrying the torch of modern thrash metal. It's a completely understandable claim; the band have released three albums thus far, and each one of them has received a ridiculous amount of praise. The skeptics may deem the group a smidgen too reminiscent of Voivod, but I'd argue that the whole "progressive- thrash" concept is where that similarity begins and ends. Sure, there's the space theme as well, but both bands deal with that idea in different ways. Whereas Voivod's music is much more based around panic and confusion, Vektor take a more expansive and otherworldly approach to their atmosphere. That, and raspy black metal-esque vocals add a layer of extreme metal aesthetics to the prog-thrash core of their sound. Either way, whatever you may classify them as, Vektor is basically one of the most acclaimed thrash bands in years. So after Black Future and Outer Isolation, it seemed like they couldn't take their sound any further, as well as the quality of their music.

I was dead wrong.

Terminal Redux feels like the musical equivalent of being lost in space and feeling insignificant to every star and planet around you. There's not only an overarching darkness to the record, but such a strangely attractive beauty to it all. This is, of course, despite the amount of intense distortion and fast tempos you'd typically expect in Vektor's chosen genre. While the beginning of "Charging the Void" suggests a frantic atmosphere to the following album, it's soon realized that the band are especially keen on inserting moments that let the listener breathe and take in the majesty of the instrumental work. The highly melodic and catchy interlude "Mountains Above the Sun" is a perfect depiction of this, bringing a mellow respite (until the end of the track, at least) after three intense bangers. Speaking of those, I don't think I've heard such a strong three opening tracks in a long time. "Charging the Void" immediately strikes with countless inventive thrash riffs, and before you know it, by the end of the song you're hearing a goddamn choir singing along with David DiSanto's shrieks. It's all brought together by an overall song structure that's highly progressive while maintaining a headbang-worthy slew of riffs. "Cygnus Terminal" keeps up with the standard of quality with a beautiful clean-guitar introduction and a few moments that somewhat borrow from jazz fusion due to the guitar chords, while "LCD" has an exceptional finger-tapped guitar motif that's both technically impressive and appropriately spacey. One of the most remarkable things about Terminal Redux is that it never really dips in quality? and it's 73 minutes long! Quite an astounding feat.

A big part of the album's appeal is that, with every track, an interesting story is unfolding through David's dense and complex lyrics. I haven't been able to fully grasp the entirety of the tale, and the band haven't totally explained it as of yet, but this is what I get from it: an individual comes to rule the Cygnus regime after rising to power because he found a supposed method to attaining immortality. However, considering some of the lines DiSanto delivers, the character's views are likely controversial, most notably on "LCD" with lines like, "have them screened/we feed off their disease." Regardless, the way the story is combined with such compelling instrumentation and vocals makes for a record that's simply addicting to listen to. This is especially true of faster-paced songs like "Ultimate Artificer" and "Pillars of Sand," which generate a sound more akin to classic 80s technical thrash while retaining the rest of the album's songwriting complexity. Also, despite the tightness of the instrumental work, there's a hint of irreverence once in a while; the climactic solo in the middle of "Pteropticon" combines classical elements with a touch of seemingly random dissonance, tapping into something more chaotic. This is one album that's incredibly entertaining to listen to while reading the lyric booklet, if mostly to see how each stanza works in conjunction with the musical accompaniment. Of course, I can't forget the other musicians alongside David DiSanto who make all of this possible. Erik Nelson blends with DiSanto effortlessly, and brings some experimental and even jazzy guitar leads to many of the tunes; the rhythm section of Frank Chin and Blake Anderson is also to be admired, particularly on the faster tracks which require a ton of stamina and intricacy to nail.

Everything eventually wraps up with the mindblowing closer "Recharging the Void," a 13-minute epic that pulls together everything the album tried (and succeeded) to accomplish. The story started by "Charging the Void" comes full circle with many musical and lyrical nods to that very track. One of which is the melodic portion with the choir returning, but it's been expanded to a full ballad portion with DiSanto showing off a beautifully calm vocal performance; in it, he sings: "All we ask is our story told." Well the band's story has been told. It was told in a 73- minute-long masterpiece, a sci-fi tale that's gorgeous and compelling while being complex and brutal. I usually don't hand out a perfect score to such new releases, but it's the only score I can imagine lending to Terminal Redux. There's not a single dud here, the story is exceptionally well-delivered and well-paced, and every musician is on- point. This, my friends, is a modern metal classic.

Review by The Crow
PROG REVIEWER
4 stars A brutal travel through space and death!

Hearing Terminal Redux is like being propelled through light years of heinous wars, apocalyptic starship crashes and obscure mythologies. The concept of the album is obtuse and difficult to understand, but also an adventure to discover, just like the music of Vektor. They proudly carry the banner of technical death metal today. And they deserve it!

The production of the album is also very solid, leaving space for every instrument. I would mention the guitars, which sound piercing and pristine, and also the powerful drums. Maybe the bass is a bit low for my taste, but that's usual in thrash and death metal anyway. But let's talk about the songs!

Charging the Void introduces us in a very powerful way in the style of the album. A very technical and fierce death metal but with tons of epic melodies, really catchy for adventurous listeners. The DiSanto vocals are pure black metal nevertheless, and they are accompanied in this song by splendid clean female choirs. A very solid, progressive and surprising song!

Cygnus Terminal is a bit more melancholic and melodic, but also powerful and it contains incredible drumming from Blake Anderson. LCD is even faster, with brutal lyrics with helps to define the concept of the record. And then comes Mountains Above the sun, a very wise track which introduces variety while being just an introduction for Ultimate Artificer, a song which is a bit more classic death metal, but it contains some of the best riffs of the album.

But hey... The second half of the CD is even better! Pteropticon is one of the most complete songs of the album with its devilish speed and brutal melodies. Is one of the best written tracks. Psycotropia increases the craziness level and it contains one hell of a bass solo. And Pillars of Sand follow the more straightforward line of Ultimate Artificer... At this point we start to feel again the album needs a change.

And then we find Collapse! A semi-acoustic and beautiful track with clean vocals which increases its intensity progressively bringing a beautiful moment when clean vocals and growls unite, making a very original and catchy section. The final part of the song is a bit more conventional, but also great. Another marvelous bass playing from Frank Chin!

Recharging the Void... If I had to introduce Vektor to someone, this would be the chosen song to do that. Over 13 minutes of epic melodies, haunting clean choirs, brutal guitars and incredible riffs. It's arguably the best song of the album and one of the highlights in Vektor's career. Just a must hearing song for every prog metal lover! Just like the rest of the album.

Conclusion: Terminal Redux has a pair of not so brilliant moments where the music can be a bit repetitive. But as a whole is just one of the best metal albums of this decade. Superb songwriting, cryptic concept and impressive instrumental skill which brings to mind the best technical death metal moments of the 90's while it achieves to sound different and very actual.

If you are not scared by extreme metal and black metal vocals, you should give Terminal Redux a chance. It's a very impressive release from which confirms that Vektor are not the future of metal anymore. They are the present!

Thank you for this great experience, guys.

Best Tracks: Charging the Void, Pteropticon, Psycotropia, Collapse, Recharging the Void.

My rating: ****

Latest members reviews

4 stars As prog-metal Youtuber 'Mike the Music Snob' recently explained, many bands earn their prog label simply on account of their sounding "like other progressive bands that we've heard before." While this may be true even of many bands and albums on this list site, Vektor's 'Terminal Redux' is an album ... (read more)

Report this review (#2287377) | Posted by ssmarcus | Saturday, December 14, 2019 | Review Permanlink

5 stars Vektor perfected their style and released the best thrash metal album of all time. I have never been a big fan of the so called 'Thrash Metal' but somehow Vektor can keep this style interesting. The style is basically the same as from the 2 previous albums but with better production, better rif ... (read more)

Report this review (#1580143) | Posted by RuntimeError | Sunday, June 19, 2016 | Review Permanlink

5 stars Vektor is thrash band that incorporates prog elements into their music as well as the singing style of legendary death metal singer Chuck Schuldiner. They sound like if Chuck Shuldiner was in Megadeth meets Voivod. They have lyrics that are science fiction themed through their discography, which m ... (read more)

Report this review (#1571374) | Posted by eliunger | Friday, May 27, 2016 | Review Permanlink

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