In any given year, decade, century, or whatever frame of time you feel like using, there are always a set of performances that people were particularly fond of with a subsidy of them truly standing the test of time. When they came around with their first full-length album a little over six years ago, Spectral Voice truly made their presence known with "Eroded Corridors of Unbeing". Even unto today, people revere and deeply respect the album for all that it accomplished with its particularly dark brand of death-doom that was nigh on uncompromising and the very definition of terror in the aural form. It is widely regarded as one of the best and most voracious albums of that decade alongside many others, and their names have been on the lips of plenty since given their pretty consistent release schedule whether it be with splits, demos, or live performances. Yet, it is now with their second full-length record that Spectral Voice is set to repeat history.
An amalgamation of darkness that is constantly twisting and contorting while always on the precipice of self-consumption, the very sound of Spectral Voice has long been regarded as a powerful entity whose machinations and deviances cannot be understated. We saw that on full display in their previous work, and it is with "Sparagmos" that we see the act take their sound down a different albeit incredibly similar path where their many-flavored soup of madness truly grapples onto the listener and makes damn sure to leave no survivors in its wake. A profoundly intense experience that explores the themes of longing for the sweet release of death while clawing onto the fleeting vestiges of life, "Sparagmos" goes out of its ways to tear the listener asunder as it's through their immense sound and constant morphing that the record becomes something that is incredibly hard to pin down, predict, and digest lest you cast yourself wholly upon the work. There isn't a moment of reprieve or true safety throughout the record with the very reputation of Spectral Voice preceding this monolithic journey, the band's power drives their nuances home time after time, with it all culminating in what has to be considered an early peak for far more than death metal in the new year. By all accounts, "Sparagmos" is something that should make waves across the very entirety of the metal underground.
For all intents and purposes, 2024 is already staring down the barrel of what is destined to be one of its most lauded efforts. For all of its darkness and horrors to be found within its damp halls where the damned loathe to travel, "Sparagmos" is something that is not to be missed for anything. Where "Eroded Corridors of Unbeing" saw Spectral Voice dominate the latter parts of the last decade, it is everything that's brought forth within the macabre majesty of "Sparagmos" that poises Spectral Voice to do this same exact thing for the first half of the current decade.
"Sparagmos" releases on February 9th via Dark Descent Records!
LISTEN to an advanced track from "Sparagmos" on Bandcamp here or via YouTube below.
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