2021 seems a long time ago. So far away, in fact, that I had completely forgotten half of my end-of-year list. Imagine my surprise then, when I checked the previous references on our august site, which I had listed Spectral WoundThe latest release of A devilish thirst. This was nothing, however, compared to my shock when I discovered that not only Deaf sky-groupie Doom and others gave him a spot on the list, so he was skeptical of BM Ferrous beuller. Perhaps this broadcast says something about what Spectral Wound with his third album, his style of vicious and semi-raw black metal that appeals to both the voracious death metal machine Ferrous And Sunbather-apologist Lossas well as yours truly, who can normally be found basking in the atmosphere of the BMverse. Can this Canadian quintet achieve the same lightning-in-a-bottle effect with their fourth album, Songs of Blood and Mud?
Pressing play for the first time, I was briefly taken aback, as it felt like I had unwittingly put on a sludge record, the distorted opening notes of opening track “Fevers and Suffering” drowned in feedback, reminding me of nothing more than Charger. This effect only lasts a few moments but is nonetheless disarming. Spectral Wound rips a new one out of you with an altogether more familiar sound. Searing tremolos spread frost in their frozen wake, while Illusory’s artillery-like percussion hits the listener again and again. As always, Jonah’s raspy screams cut like shards of glass blown by an arctic gale, slicing through your flesh and your mind. So far, then Spectral Wound. However, there is a subtle, but marked, maturation in the band’s sound on Songs of Blood and Mud. Without losing any of the furious and visceral dark magic that tainted their previous releases, Spectral Wound now weave, in turn, a really mean groove, reminiscent of the beginnings Bathory (“Aristocratic Suicidal Black Metal”), as well as a Scandinavian epic, in the Windir (“Twelve Moons in Hell”).
In a way, Blood of Mire Songs what does that remind me of? Miasmas captured during their debut, Unlight: Songs of Earth and Atrophybecause it offers a resolutely hard, but strangely melodic black metal, channeling groups like Dissection And The tainsas much as he does Windir and others. Rough and brutal in places, Spectral Wound The group are only too happy to break down your front door, before setting the shattered remains on fire and pissing on your doormat for good measure (“At Wine-Dark Midnight in the Mouldering Halls”). But that only tells half the story. Once inside, the group stalks your house, crawling from room to room, experimenting with different ways to break your belongings. Debauched, bubbling and frenzied, it sometimes feels like Spectral Wound The band members are content to take their time, Sam’s bass groove giving the rest of the group the space to quietly destroy everything (“Less and Less Human, O Savage Spirit” and the end of “A Coin Upon the Tongue”). At other times, the band is a raging storm, blasting through walls without hesitation, without a care in the world (“Fevers and Suffering” and “The Horn Marauding”).
During his tight 43-minute race, Songs of Blood and Mud is completely equivalent to Spectral WoundThe band’s previous efforts. At its best (Aristocratic Suicidal Black Metal and the closing track, Twelve Moons in Hell), this is probably the strongest material the band has released to date. Slightly less raw than previous efforts, there is something here of the transition made by Murmuur Lamp between its debut and its third release, that of 2023 Saturnian Bloodstorm. Whether it is this deep vein of groove that is now woven more firmly into Spectral WoundWhether it’s the album’s sound or its little flourishes, like the super fun solo thrown in (by Patrick or AA) halfway through “A Coin upon the Tongue,” you get the sense that the band is confident in their writing and comfortable with their sound. The excellent production, which retains a certain organic rawness but emphasizes details, like the melodic and sharp side of the guitars, doesn’t hurt at all.
Clearly written by the same group that conjured Hellish decadence And A devilish thirst, Songs of Blood and Mud still has a few tricks up its sleeve. Although it is Spectral Woundthe longest outing to date (border A devilish thirst of a few minutes), there is no filler or bloat here, and the whole thing feels vital and filled with barely contained energy. My favorite Spectral Wound As of today, I’m afraid the score counter is in trouble. Again.
Rating: 4.0/5.0
DR: 6 | Format reviewed: mp3 320 kb/s
Label: Deep knowledge
Websites: spectralwound.bandcamp.com | facebook.com/spectralwoundcontramundi
Worldwide releases: August 23, 2024
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