Release Date 24.07.2026
Format CD/LP/Digital
Genre Progressive Metal
Origin Ireland
The Vicious Head Society is an Irish progressive metal band centered on guitarist, composer and synth player Graham Keane. Keane’s musical path began in childhood, shaped by virtuoso guitar playing and older brothers steeped in progressive rock. Years spent studying harmony, unusual meters and long form composition fed into a band led by one composer and supported by a changing cast of collaborators. After his wife faced cancer, music moved from a private pursuit to the center of his working life, adding personal urgency to the material.
The first two albums established a mix of heavy riffing, melodic vocals, elaborate song forms and guitar work where accuracy and velocity serve the composition. On the third album, Keane works with drummer Klemen Markelj, vocalist Nathan Max, bassist Matheus Manente and synth soloist Nahuel Ramos. Extra bass, backing vocals, saxophone and violin appear on selected cuts. The rhythm section handles the shifting meters, the keyboards expand the harmonic range, and Max adds a human focal point when the arrangements turn abstract. Keane remains the central composer, with a full band working within his wider vision.
"Call Of The Void" contains eight songs across about fifty two minutes and turns inward, dealing with lost direction, self examination, resistance, surrender and renewal. The production puts Keane’s guitars up front, spreads the synths across the stereo field, and separates bass from drums through the busiest sections, though cymbals can become tiring when the arrangements swell. Max’s high melodic vocals sit above angular riffs, double kick movement and long guitar lines, with saxophone and violin adding unexpected color on selected cuts and breaking the usual progressive metal texture.
The playing is precise and often impressive; several compositions stack riffs, solos, keyboard layers and meter changes until the emotional tension gets buried under musical mechanics. Keane’s solos follow a melodic logic and show restraint, and the vocal hooks bring needed shape when individual songs become crowded around their middle sections. Several rhythmic shifts increase the unease at the heart of the album.
Others extend a point already made, making the running time seem longer and exposing how little space some themes receive. The lyrics remain inside anxiety, erosion of self and the search for meaning, presented with sincerity, although some lines fall back on broad progressive metal imagery and lack concrete detail. This is thoughtful, skillful progressive metal with emotional tension and an excess of arrangement, rewarding when melody governs the machinery, frustrating when another detour replaces a decisive conclusion.
|7.5
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