Ah, a birthday celebration. The family’s gathered around the birthday boy as the scene is adorned with décor and smiles are fixated on everyone’s face as presents are given, wrapping paper is unwrapped, and gratitude is voiced. Surprisingly, one notices that a gift has been provided from their younger sister to them. Anxiously, the recipient begins to shed the thin exterior when unfamiliarity is replaced with stark recognition – their sister has wrapped something sitting on the shelf beforehand and inadvertently disguised it as something else. While the effort is appreciated, the prize underneath the paper has nothing new to offer, replacing promise with disappointment. Upon listening to Vortice’s Zombie, the same general feeling is created as the group’s content offered will simply be passed off as a less-skilled Meshuggah clone.

This group hailing from Barcelona, Spain, comprised of vocalist David Martin, axes Pedro Sanchez, Alex Fernandez, and drummer Llorenc Puig span eight compositions offering stuttering guitars, wailing vocals, and steady rhythms. Even though this initially appears to be a recipe for success, all of the tracks featured on this record generally unravel themselves at a mid-tempo pace, rarely daring to quicken their approach or bring a section to a crawl. Regrettably, this produces a tragically unmemorable listen as variation on Vortice’s second full length effort tends to be scarcely found.

From the opening angular guitars of “Filed Process” to the final chord of “Redrum,” these four Spaniards lose themselves attempting to perform their finest Meshuggah impression as the whole delivery Vortice is attempting has been copied straight out of the Swedish band’s playbook. If whoever is reading this can envision what any Meshuggah composition brings to the ears then they would have a stout notion of Vortice’s approach, only the material found here comes across as less developed and entertaining. Title track, “Zombie,” gives off the impression that the band is merely cycling through the motions, as their machine-like instrumentals fail to extract an iota of interest from the listener. Due to the song’s incessant repetition, the five minute duration of the song – fun fact: most of the tracks on here conclude right around five minutes – makes the piece seem twice as extensive as grinding strings rumbling in unorthodox patterns only remain bearable for so long. Likewise, “The Shame” is such an ode to Meshuggah that one could be easily convinced of the composition’s inclusion in their latest release, obZen, because honestly, the aforementioned piece has as much originality as Attack Attack! has a focused approach to songwriting.

While this highly critical analysis could continue track by track, Vortice do display competency in their musicianship and during a very brief moment the group hint at what they could offer with a reconfigured approach. Even though the song still shows the band wearing their main influence on their sleeves, “Dawn of the Dead” has to be crowned the most entertaining piece on Zombie. This is primarily in regard to the rather captivating middle section of the song, where the band breaks into a quickened pace with swift guitars, finally liberating themselves from their incredibly overplayed angular riffs, whilst revealing how enticing their music could be if they switched their style a little. A last recognition must be made and that is the performance of vocalist David Martin. Even though he shares a similar scream to Meshuggah front man Jens Kidman, he actually alters his throat shredding enough to make the music provided here listenable. Nowhere on the album is there a standout for the vocalist since he mainly abides by the same approach but he should be commended for his efforts anyhow. Yes, this is a fitting example of how far a reviewer needs to stretch in order to give credit to a group deserving of very little.

Even though this review could be wrapped up with the birthday metaphor posted above, I feel compelled to switch things up a bit – something that obviously never crossed Vortice’s minds during the writing and recording of their second full length album, Zombie. As stated repeatedly throughout the review, these four Spaniards really bring nothing special to the heavy music scene and are basically riding on the coattails of Meshuggah. Though they have a skilled front man and competent musicians, Vortice have not shown the capability of creeping out from the shadow of their influences. Until then, it is fitting that Vortice named their album Zombie as the material offered to the masses shuffles in monotony, while showing no signs of life along the way.

2.0/5