11 February 2024
Spectral Voice again after 7 years. The most important difference of the band, which includes 75% of Blood Incantation, is that Wendler is at the helm alongside Riedl. Blood Incantation, taking old school death metal out of the generally accepted patterns have been beating our eardrums for years with their long song durations and relentless, evil music that is impossible to contain anything related to the mainstream.
While Blood Incantation have been carrying out this task well for a long time, they are also working hard under the name Spectral Voice with Wendler to see if they can create something viler and harder to digest.
Spectral Voice’s music continues similar to the first album, but there are minor differences. One of these is by far a better album recording by Arthur Rizk. Arthur Rizk has already become a brand with his own bands and the wonderful recordings he has made for many bands over the years.
Personally, I love both Blood Incantation and Spectral Voice. However, as a listener, my auditory experiences with these two bands worked differently. Blood Incantation blew me away on first listen but it took me a while to get used to Spectral Voice. They make a kind of music that one get used to upon listening for a certain amount of time.
The heavy Doom atmosphere in their music is in place similar to their first release. After all, Spectral Voice’s trademark is primarily this heavy Doom metal atmosphere that makes it difficult for conventional old school death metal listeners to get used to. It is possible to get a funeral doom atmosphere from the music in some parts of the album. After these heavy sections, they manage to capture the listener’s mind with the aggressive sections that suddenly emerge from the depths, similar to the ear-hurting buzzing created by thousands of bees suddenly emptying their hive. The most important dynamic of their music is this shocking transition between very heavy Doom sections and aggressive death metal elements.
How could one give a description of the band’s music to a first time listen candidate? Here is mine: Their doom metal comes from the Autopsy school and death metal comes from the Incantation school. Add some Immolation atonality, Thergothon gloom and lyrics laced with death and astral elements, and you’re there.
I have a lot of respect for these guys. Because they revived this most extreme form of extreme metal, together with a bunch of bands around, and showed that this style of music exists and will always continue to exist. And while doing this they continue growing bigger and bigger by their consecutive creations. They are really amazing. Job well done!
9,5/10
