AM I IN TROUBLE? – SPECTRUM

(Andy Synn officially kicks off a new year here at NCS in colourful style)

The big question at the start of every new year is… where do we start?

Should I tell you what I think about the new one from The Great Old Ones? Or This Gift Is A Curse? Maybe Imperial Triumphant?

All big names, in their own way, and ones which I’m sure we’ll get to cover at some point in the near future (I’m definitely going to be writing something about the latter two myself) but our modus operandi here has always been to favour the unsung artists first and foremost.

And so, I thought, why not kick things off with something a little bit more provocative – though, I’d imagine, much of that will depend on how restrictive your view of the term “Black Metal” is – from a brand new artist attempting to put their own artsy, avant-garde spin on a genre more famous for its monochromatic malevolence.

Right from the start it’s clear that Am I In Trouble? (aka vocalist/multi-instrumentalist Steve Wiener, plus friends) aren’t afraid to wear their influences – the bold, colourful contrasts of Solefald, the madcap musicality of Arcturus, the streoscopic strangeness of In The Woods, and more – on their sleeve, openly acknowledging their desire to recapture the same strange and unorthodox spirit of the early 2000s Black Metal scene.

And while this means that Spectrum isn’t necessarily breaking any new ground, it’s definitely operating in musical territory which – even some twenty years later – has yet to be fully explored, and thus still has a few surprises left to throw at us.

The Folk-Prog-Pop-Metal magic of “White”, for example, is all lush, brooding guitars and soothing melodies (including some flittering flute parts), topped off with a series of crooning, contemplative clean vocals and interspersed with fleeting bursts of metallic venom, whose emotive hooks and lithe acoustic licks are more “blissful” than “blackened”.

By contrast “Pink” is – despite it’s un-kvlt title – one of the most “pure” Black Metal tracks on the album (reminiscent, in many ways, of Vintersorg‘s more elemental material, right down to the eloquent interplay between harsh and clean vocals) while still making space for the record’s proggier impulses to shine (although the song’s drawn-out finale feels like it’s building to something which, disappointingly, never comes) after which mid-album highlight “Red” serves to further showcase the darker, weirder side of the album’s identity (with both the drums – the latter courtesy of talented session sticksman Chris Barber – and bass playing an even more integral role) while also emphasising the inherent heaviness, and hookiness, of the music.

Indulgent instrumental “Blue” continues to show off both Wiener’s creative and compositional talents and the overarching inspiration of certain big name bands – sitting somewhere between the electrifying eclecticism of Sigh and the talented trickery of Rush – and while the song perhaps errs a little too close to the imitation side of things (albeit in a flattering way), powerful penultimate track “Black” closes things (the solemn acoustic outro of “Green” notwithstanding) with just under seven minutes of majestic Prog-Black (strewn with hints of Borknagar-ian brilliance) which really hints at the still untapped potential in the band’s sound.

There’s room for improvement, sure – the production doesn’t always allow the luscious, multi-layered arrangements to fully bloom, in my opinion, and the songwriting occasionally feels as though it doesn’t quite have the confidence to step outside the shadow of the band’s predecessors in order to achieve something more unique and epic in both scale and scope – but that just means there are undoubtedly bigger and better (and hopefully longer, as overall Spectrum does feel a little too short to fully satisfy) things in the band’s future… and I, for one, can’t wait to see what new colours they add to their palette next.