SPECTRAL VOICE
SPECTRAL VOICE “Sparagmos”
By Lord Randall
Denver’s SPECTRAL VOICE has certainly taken its time in getting to its second full-length, “Sparagmos”, also on Dark Descent. Now, that’s not to say the quartet hasn’t been active; far from it, as a demo, 3 split releases, a compilation and a VHS video will attest. Still and all, time to see if the guys can avoid the dreaded “sophomore slump”.
“Be Cadaver” begins, languorous strings hanging in the fetid air until a short burst of fury, then back to an almost KHANATE noise experiment, howls, shrieks and funerary rhythms abounding. That the band rarely moves above this begrimed crawl over the song’s 11+ minutes yet manages to hold the listener entrapped is something impressive.
Rabid from the start, “Red Feasts Condensed Into One” soon moves into the plodding, primordial ooze with which SPECTRAL VOICE has been bubbling since inception, still not releasing the grip on the aural senses. Punishing, pummeling around the 4-minute mark, a ferocity I avoid labeling as “death” - so angular, so roughened and pitted are the guitars here and throughout – that, mark my words, someone in this band is into SWANS and GODFLESH. But rest assured, nothing machine-driven here. Just coarse throat exorcisms, cauterizing strings and sub-basement rhythms.
“Death’s Knell Rings In Eternity” does nothing to abate the sonic torture inflicted, but, to be fair, no one who’s even going to give SPECTRAL VOICE a try is interested in “feeling better”, or “well”, or even reasonably “alright”. There are elements of death to be found, but this is not death metal as CANNIBAL CORPSE fans know it. BOG BODY may be a reference at times, MIZMOR in others. Simply put, “Sparagmos” is music for the ill. And if you’re not when you start listening, you might well be by the time you finish…or it finishes you…