SPECTRAL WOUND – SONGS OF BLOOD AND MIRE

 Album Reviews  No Responses »
Aug 192024
 

(Andy Synn gets deep in his cups with the new album from Spectral Wound, out Friday)

Blame it on whatever you want – the insidious influence of social media, the growing desperation of Youtube “critics” and their need to monetise their “hot takes”, or simply the seemingly endless (and futile) competition for attention in an overloaded digital world – but it definitely seems like a lot of the nuance has been bled out of our ability to engage with, and analyse, music.

The fact is that if you were to listen solely to the mass-media hype machine you might start to think that new albums come in only two forms, either “best album ever” or “total fucking garbage”, to the point where I’ve seen some of the more excessively online fans of certain bands absolutely losing their shit if a writer decides to give one of their favourites anything less than a perfect score.

There’s also an expectation – one which I find entirely unfair and thoroughly counterproductive – that a band’s new album must be “better” (which is an extremely loaded word when it comes to art in the first place) than their previous one, which ends up creating an impossible set of expectations as well as discouraging risk-taking and/or experimentation.

And the reason I’m saying all of this (which some of you may already have worked out) is because I don’t think that Songs of Blood and Mire is better than 2021’s fantastic A Diabolic Thirst… but to say it is anything less than its equal, now that would be a crime.

Continue reading »

SHADES OF BLACK: GROZA, SPECTRAL WOUND, INCESSANT, CONCRETE WINDS, OPPRESS., VANQUISHMENT, XHELAT, GREAT LAKES DUNGEON SIEGE

 Album Reviews, Metal News, SHADES OF BLACK, SHORT BUT SWEET  No Responses »
Jun 302024
 


Groza

As I mentioned yesterday I’m flying to Iceland tomorrow to be present at Ascension Fest. I need to figure out what to pack, decisions like whether I should bring one change of underwear and socks for the week or 7. I’ve noticed from past Ascensions that people there don’t smell as bad as at U.S. festivals, so maybe more than one change, eh?

I’ve also got a couple of premieres to write for posting tomorrow before I leave, and some clothes to wash, and I might should spend some time with my spouse, to increase the iffy odds she’ll still be here when I get back.

So, even though it’s been two weeks since the last time I did this Sunday column and therefore I have an especially mountainous pile of new music to choose from, this will have to be short — at least in terms of my own words. Continue reading »

OUR LIST OF 2021’S MOST INFECTIOUS EXTREME METAL SONGS (PART 1): GLIMT, SPECTRAL WOUND, TEITAN

 MOST INFECTIOUS SONGS-2021  2 Responses »
Jan 052022
 

 

We seem to pick up new readers every year, even as some older readers finally give up and bid us an adios, with or without middle fingers raised. So I guess it’s still worth telling people what they’re getting themselves into with this series.

This is traditionally the last part of our annual LISTMANIA extravaganza, though I do know of one more year-end album list that we still want to post whenever it arrives. This particular series isn’t about best albums or best shorter releases, and it isn’t even about best songs. As the title says, it’s about “most infectious” songs. Some of those might be among the year’s best songs, but in every year there are stand-out songs that aren’t immediately infectious, and actually might never be. Conversely, there are some highly infectious songs every year that most people wouldn’t critically acclaim as great works of art.

The process of compiling this list is a bit bizarre, or at least very poorly planned. Let me explain: Continue reading »

SEEN AND HEARD ON A SATURDAY: SPECTRAL WOUND, WEREWOLVES, MNHG, SOLAR DEMISE, WOLFANGER, FEAST FOR THE CROWS, MATT HECKLER

 Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  4 Responses »
Feb 202021
 

 

There’s always a kind of random quality about these weekend round-ups, mainly because what I choose to investigate in my listening is itself a very random process. This one may be more random than most because I jumped around in my listening list to make sure I included some groups I knew nothing about, and wound up picking some of those for the last four items in the following collection. I also decided to throw you a big curveball at the end.

SPECTRAL WOUND (Canada)

I easily could have saved this first song for tomorrow’s SHADES OF BLACK column, but it put such a thrill in me when I first heard it this morning that it would have pained me too wait. It’s such a glorious bonfire of sound, a racing whirl of exultant harmonized riffing, scorching vocals, and jet-speed drumming (which occasionally shifts gears). There’s a brief (and unnecessary) interlude in the middle, and then we’re right back in the midst of this brilliant spinning pillar of fire. Ironically, the name of the song is “Frigid and Spellbound“. Continue reading »

SPECTRAL WOUND: “TERRA NULLIUS”

 Album Reviews  11 Responses »
Jul 262015
 

Spectral Wound-Terra Nullius

 

Yesterday afternoon, just as I was about to finish writing a “Shades of Black” collection of new and newly discovered black metal that I posted earlier this morning, I took one more glance at our e-mail box and found a message that had just arrived from a label called Media Tree Recordings. It announced the release of Terra Nullius, the debut album by a Montreal band named Spectral Wound (whose ranks include two former members of Ensorcelor).

I impetuously decided to listen to one song, thinking I might add it to that “Shades of Black” post. Without intending to, I listened to the entire album from start to finish — and began writing what you’re reading now before the album had even ended. It deserves a more carefully considered and meticulously crafted review than the one you’re about to read, but given how stretched I am for time and how limited I am in my abilities, I’m afraid the following impulsive words of praise will have to do. Continue reading »