Several years have passed since SPECTRAL VOICE gave us one of the best modern Death Metal records for many many years. Below we talk about “Sparagmos”, the highly anticipated follow-up to “Eroded Corridors Of Unbeing”, which is set for release via Dark Descent Records on February 9th.
Reverberate guitars begin with an otherworldly ambience, starting off as ominously as one could expect. Booming drums lurk into existence with charnel riffing opening a chasm of doomed soundscapes. Those who enjoyed the recent split with Undergang will be overjoyed to hear this continuation into bleak depravity is continued. The way in which the mangled vocals sit in the unsettling cacophony of instruments is disconcerting to say the least. While the Death and Doom Metal that Spectral Voice have always seamlessly combined remain ever-present, there is a cinematically disturbing feel to this new opus that entangles the spirit in desolate hopelessness from the first few moments. Moving with a fluid and yet purposeful arrangement, the building sense of dread is palpable and yet does not let the sense of a song still being a song fall to the wayside. Of course there is a savage and yet funereal feeling to this resplendently morbid atmosphere which while expansive, does not feel pretentious, still retaining that feral hunger for true extremity.
In each unforgiving second, the churning maelstrom of intensive guitars, bass, drums and vocals blend into a singularity of abyssal decay. Utilising their atmospheric strength while keeping memorability intact, Spectral Voice takes things one step further than ever before. Their debut work is inarguably one of the most important Death Metal records of the 2000s onwards, and here on “Sparagmos” there is a sense of its value being upheld and yet built upon and reincarnated rather than rehashed. Each gorgeously effect-laden passage of guitars feels purposeful and sumptuous while the drums and cymbals break like fallen monoliths. Instrumentally, their sound is massive with the vocals not toppling this mountain of sonic excellence. Indeed, the voices are sparing but only accentuate the incantations of that dragging, unearthly monstrosity that Spectral Voice has unearthed.
Refining their sound without taming it, it is impressive that a band who are so renowned for building unique worlds of cryptic ambience can so unpredictably visceral and intense with animalistic burst of rage coming from nowhere yet being musically cohesive. Each of these lengthy tracks features plenty of sonic and emotional diversity while making total sense, only pulling you further into the depths of whatever macabre world these sounds emanate from. Similarly the vocals are more evocative than ever with these powerful howls adding a bombastic sense of anguish to the otherwise menacing growls of the album. While repetition can be a useful tool, this particular band seem to use progression to achieve equally hypnotising effects while keeping those gloomy moments coming back to further enhance the bewitchment. Truly a magical creation within the world of Death Metal that has all of the antiquities of the old school while offering something valuably renewed, rekindled and ultimately fascinating to listen to. Breaking boundaries without betraying one’s roots is a hard balance to maintain in this extreme musical world but if any band can be relied upon to do so wonderfully, it is Spectral Voice.
Of course the second album of a band whose debut is considered legendary such as Spectral Voice is always a frightening moment for fans, especially when it is one that has been so eagerly awaited for several years. The same could be said about the recent sophomore album from Cruciamentum. The common ground is that Spectral Voice has also returned with a truly magnificent album that lives up to its predecessor and builds upon it without losing the grotesque characteristics that made the first so widely beloved. The expansion of the atmospheric side is noticeable, but the rancidity of its Death Metal core has never been lost along the way. “Sparagmos” is simply another beast of its own nature that belongs in this bands unfaltering discography as worthily as every other entry.
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