Consuming in its balance of atmospheric intrigue and heavy-rocking passion, Six Migrations is an ardent metal-forward success from Six Migration, the project of Portland, Oregon-based musician David Vitello. A genre-spanning artist and audio engineer, Vitello’s career began in the 1990s, paused in 2002 after early prolific output and band involvement, and resumed in 2019 — with a diverse range of releases including the album Decibel Nihil, film scores, a progressive metal album with his daughter, and now the Six Migrations EP.
A thunderous push of guitar distortion and growling vocal intensity commence “Gods,” opening the EP with compelling ferocity. A brief pause past the 50-second mark drives into an excitably dexterous guitar line, then falling back into the grumbling hard-rock vigor. Another consuming shift takes hold a minute thereafter, while nocturnal guitar pulses accompany introspective vocal dreaminess — expanding into an elegant, blissful fusing of synth pads and orchestral-like resonance. Vitello has a clear talent for unfolding structural immersion, within a wide array of tonal pursuits, and “Gods” is certainly exemplary of that.
The EP continues to succeed, with “Demi-Gods” excelling in its mixture of foreboding metal riffs and bellowing ghost-choir intrigue in the second half. “Animals” also stirs in its magnetic alt-rock composure, swelling into a screaming excellence as the finale approaches. Concluding track “Hell Denizens” envelops across both lush guitar atmospherics and death-metal sludge. Six Migrations is a fantastic EP that doesn’t let up once throughout its six memorable tracks.
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“Hell Denizens” and other tracks featured this month can be streamed on the updating Obscure Sound’s ‘Emerging Singles’ Spotify playlist.
