The Vital Might

The Vital Might is an alternative rock band from Boston. As soon as I opened their myspace page, I was bombarded with some of the best music I’ve heard in the last couple weeks. They have a nice background effect which uses one of the guitars with a lot of delay and reverb. Also, a good demonstration of the drummer’s ability can be found in the song Trouble somewhere around the 2:30 mark. He also plays a similar beat over the last few seconds of the song. I really like the intro to Phantom Spaceman. It has a nice 16th note ride on the hi-hats and an effect-affluent guitar providing the ambience to fit the “spacey” mood of the song. Around 2:25 in this song, the drums again get a nice fill in. This time, he focuses on the toms, particularly the lower ones which creates a nice rhythmatic feel to the song and offers a break from the usual hi hat-snare focused beats. I don’t particularly like the chorus to this song but the drummer’s ability definitely makes up for it.

As soon as the drum intro starts in Bird of Black Fire you are immediately drawn into the song. It basically sets up the rhythm found in most of the song. There have been many songs that have achieved greatness just because the first few seconds contain an iconic drum beat that gravitates any who listen. I’ll take the time now to comment on the vocalist’s voice. He has a very unique voice; I’ve never heard anything like it. It’s very hard to describe the sound. It may be just a post-processed effect but it seems like his voice has several layers to it. It takes a few seconds to get used to but once there, it is an enticing sound. He also has a very good range. A singer’s voice can easily make or break a band and in this case he makes it. I’m not saying that his voice is the only good thing; the other musicians are also extremely talented. Overall, these guys are extremely talented and show a lot of promise in the future.

Once again, the intro to one of The Vital Might’s songs has amazed me. The guitar at the beginning of Don’t Mind Me is quite epic. What’s even better is that it continues throughout the song. This song has such a nice “chill” feeling to it along with the occasional breaks where the energy is increased momentarily. I am very curious as to who writes the instrumentation for this band (if it is even any single member or if they all write their own parts). Moving on to Measure I found that it was also exceptionally made as expected. These guys really know how to make music.

As far as the recording quality, it sounds very professional. I cannot hear any of the artifacts that are usually present in small-time recordings. Everything sounds very clear and precise. I am interested to see what method they used to record. By method I mean a large number of things such as location, direct-usb versus external digital recorder, microphone brand, and method of instrument input. These recordings are most likely the best I’ve heard for a non-professional.

As of post time, The Vital Might has over 40,700 profile views. I happen to find that impressive. It means that people are finding them and enjoying the music and then, most importantly, returning to the page. Anyone can stumble across a good band (I am living proof of that), but it takes a really good band to make the viewer want to return to the site. These guys are doing it right. They are delivering on many aspects where other bands would fall short. This band is a truly amazing example of what every unsigned band out there should strive for. I am truly impressed.

Final Word
The Vital Might is a great band. They have virtually no faults while possessing a gratuitous wealth of assets. Every single one of their songs has a different sound to it. That is amazing and very difficult. I hope they can continue that trend. I find it hard to believe that this band is only made up of three guys. It sounds like there are so many more. All of the instruments sound very good and have a perfect amount of complexity to them. The actual quality of the recordings surpasses all unsigned bands I’ve heard and even some signed bands. On top of it all, they have a huge fan base. These guys are set. Check them out here.






-ishibustim