Oblivion Vocalist Unveils Epic Thrash Metal Concerto for Electric Guitar and Orchestra
Oblivion vocalist Nick Vasallo has released “Black Swan Event,” a seventeen-minute-long “thrash metal concerto.” The piece was performed last month at The Crowden Music Center in Berkeley, CA, and features guitars and drums from Vasallo’s Oblivion bandmates, Victor Dods and Luis Martinez.
As of this writing, I’ve only had a chance to watch this once, and it’s a lot to digest upon an initial viewing/listen — especially because Vasallo by and large forgoes the kind of “traditionalist” metal/orchestra integration that we’ve heard on albums like Metallica’s S&M and Dimmu Borgir’s Death Cult Armageddon. There’s a lot of dissonance here; at times, it feels like the score to a particularly unsettling horror film. Check it out and see what you think:
