Spectral Voice, the doom death band from Denver, Colorado, has now released their second album "Spragmos" via Dark Descent Records. Three quarters of the band's line-up also play in the much better-known Blood Incantation, who musically serve the opposite spectrum of death metal to Spectral Voice.The underground attitude is also clear from the fact that Spectral Voice doesn't yet have an official facebook presence, and other websites are also mercilessly out of date. So the music should speak for itself here, and the album booklet only shows vague outlines of the musicians, if at all. Very beneficial in the age of internet narcissism!
"Sparagmos" also pays homage to the darkest and most sinister doom and death. Spectral Voice is above all music that is less able to convince through concrete riffs or structures, but rather the eerie and oppressive atmosphere that is conveyed here in four overlong songs between 8 and 13 minutes. This music is claustrophobia set to music, imagine someone is wandering through an endless labyrinth with oppressively narrow walls that are getting closer and closer together, there is no way out in sight, while the protagonist still has the last memories of a life full of torment. When the simple but all the more effective doom riffs fade out, a lonely, depressed melody sounds, which increases the sadness, before another high-speed attack begins, accompanied by barbaric, inhumane, deep death grunts. Regular song structures are almost always present, so that despite all the attention to noise, even the usual death metal listener shouldn't be overstrained - sometimes there are even gripping, groovy, rhythmic death metal parts that especially could cause concern in the audience during live gigs.
The legendary Australians from Disembowelment are the first musical godfathers that come to mind, especially when it comes to the switch from ultra-slow, abrasive parts to hyperspeed attacks. But followers of the Finns from Krypts or the legendary Rippikolu with their "Musta Seremonia" release can also serve as a reference, whereby the latter in particular were a whole lot more conventional in terms of song structures. The two unfortunately no longer existing Sonne Adam from Israel and the German Necros Christos are also a good indication, at least with regard to the atmosphere created here.
So if you want to hear madness set to music, audible despair, then Spectral Voice's latest work is perfect for you.The artistic ambition of this inspiring, unusual and truly dark work is once again underlined by the great, atmospheric cover artwork. Fans of dark sounds and doom death fanatics must grab this work.
