Lullabies of a Vampire

The Greek scene is one of those that if someone has the patient and the love to search its underground part, he will be compensated by the by the remarkable works that he will discover. Vorphalack is one of the first bands that appeared in the Greek scene, since 1988 under the name Psychic Crush playing Death Metal and since 1992 as Vorphalack, changing also their sound to Black Metal. As Vorphalack they released three demos, three EPs, one split and one compilation until 2004 when, after their last EP release, I lost their tracks. “Lullabies of a Vampire” is the album that although it is characterized by many as a full length, in reality it is a collection of tracks recorded and released by the band from 1993 to 1995. So, the album contains original Hellenic Black Metal combined with a lot of Gothic rock and paying much attention to the intense atmosphere.

We can divide the music of Vorphalack into two periods, the first is the one of the first releases in 1993 when their music is much closer to the Greek Black Metal of that era, with nice Heavy-Thrashy riffs, atmospheric keyboards and heavy vocals. Their second period starts with the releases in 1995 when their sound, although it maintains the basics regarding the guitars, here the atmosphere is much more intense and they introduce us in a Gothic aesthetics and some folk elements which make their music more interesting. The riffs, in both periods, mainly are mid paced, other times rhythmic Heavy and other times dark Black. They have many changes inside the tracks, they are quite interesting and they have been structured correctly in order to make the listen very interesting and pleasant.

The guitars are distorted, without mistakes and although the sound is dirty, they can be heard clearly. The bass fills the compositions nicely giving the depth that they should but its lines can’t be heard clearly. The drums are stable, without mistakes while their lines are simple, they do their job well without having anything mentionable. What draw the listener’s attention immediately is the very beautiful keyboards which remind Gothic very much and especially Two Witches, they create a very beautiful atmosphere in which romance and horror co-exist. The vocals in the second period of the band are harsh and whispering Black Metal vocals, while in the first they are heavy, brutal vocals which remind of the scene of the early ’90ies. In both periods the vocals are quite expressive and fit to the style of the compositions. What could annoy someone is the mediocre quality of the sound. I call it mediocre because although it is quite bassy, dirty and lifeless, it doesn’t make the listen difficult. The mix is quite good. The lyrics are written in English and they deal with LaVeyan Satanism and Vampirism.

“Lullabies of a Vampire” may has its problems with the sound but it is a good release. After many years it offers again to the fans of the Hellenic sound a different side of the scene that it remained known only to the few fanatic explorers of the ’90ies. This release would interest the fans of the Greek Black Metal sound of the ’90ies.