Band:	Viral Tyrant
Album:	Vultures Like You
Style:	Doom metal, Stoner metal
Release date:	July 21, 2023
Guest review by:	Blackcrowe

01. The Felling Of The Doom Tree
02. Beloved And Beheaded
03. Vosturan
04. Beacon Omega
05. The Great Traverse
06. A Savage Ensnared
07. Blunt Force And Sheer Ignorance

A slow, pummeling exercise in heaviness…

2023's Vultures Like You is the debut album of Viral Tyrant, a band from Portland, Oregon, USA. Formed in 2018 by bassist/vocalist Casey Martin and guitarist Dylan Fields, along with guitarist/vocalist Eric Wallace and drummer Mitch Meidinger, they released the demo Blunt Force in 2019 and a single Vosturan in 2022.

Vultures Like You has a mix of black, sludge, doom, even thrash and punk, influenced by bands like Crowbar, Conan, and High On Fire. The record delivers a massive serving of sludge-doom on "The Felling of the Doom Tree", a thunderous song that features thick, bluesy, and harsh vocal dueling, as well as inventive tempo changes that showcase how the band maintains quality and sound throughout the entire record. While the most notable songs are "Vosturan", "Beacon Omega", "Beloved", and "Beheaded", the entire record is very similar in terms of quality.

The band is also open to stepping up the pace and exploring punk and thrash genres. Despite this, it is well-balanced with old-school doom beats, psychedelic melodies, and the high-and-mighty Sabbath-kind riff.

The record's production is the low point here. Maybe the sound in some songs, such as the drums, guitar solos, or voices, deserves more work in the final mix. However, there is still so much to enjoy here.

Viral Tyrant has the tools needed to be a great band, with their well-constructed sound. The band is able to achieve... I don’t know if "success" is the word, but with songs such as "Vultures Like You", they present the qualities and songwriting chops to create the type of sludge and doom that fans love, showing off their potential with great music.