Spectral Voice – Sparagmos

Spectral Voice are a death-doom quartet from Colorado made up of three out of the four members of Blood Incantation. They’re joined by Eli Wendler of Black Curse on vocals & drums. Thus the current line-up is Morris Kolontyrsky (guitar), Paul Riedl (guitar), Jeff Barrett (bass) and the aforementioned Eli Wendler (drums/vocals). So when speaking of pure talents we’re off to a pretty good start before we’ve even heard a first tone from their seventh studio record entitled Sparagmos.

This Colorado-based four-piece’s last album dates several years back now, 2017’s Eroded Corridors of Unbeing. Now, more than seven year later Spectral Voice returned earlier this year with an unpredictable and horrifying assault of extreme death/doom madness entitled, Sparagmos. It’s their sophomore second full-length offering under the banner of Dark Descent Records.

The title itself, Sparagmos (alluding to the Dionysian rite of being torn limb from limb), sets the stage for a profound exploration of life, death, and the untamed essence within. It’s been explored through only four tracks, which are obviously very lengthy since we are dealing with a piece of punishing and crushing predominantly doom metal with additional elements of mainly death, black, dark and ambient metal.

What’s clear from the opening sounds of “Be Cadaver” is the band’s ability to make a perfect mix of different sounds; providing an equal amount of powerful riffs and cruching ambience. This opening song starts with a haunting yet clear guitar riff containing both clean and distorted sections. It’s later combined to create this mid-paced sonic assault with some clean and more death metal growling vocals. Next one is a 13-minute long anthem, “Red Feasts Condensed Into One” and it perfectly serves as a perfect follow-up to the album opener. It’s like revealing a next chapter in a story that constantly evolves and drags you further into the abyss created by these four guys. It begins with another blast beat, as they soon return to another monolithic and discordant doom riff. The dynamics and tempo shifts on this particular song are magnificent, and the whole atmosphere is rather haunting, ritualistic, oppressive and tense, sending shivers down the spine. At almost eight minutes “Sinew Censer” is the shortest song off the record, and it stands as a contrast to the first two tracks, providing an eerie dissonance, relying more on the overall soundscapes rather than the songwriting itself. The main riff is not the album’s catchiest, but still effective for this song. The closing “Death’s Knell Rings In Eternity” proves the perfect capstone to this epic album. It has perhaps the most death metal foundation; being visceral amd featuring some blast-beats, tremolo-picking, great hooks, nasty vocals and overall chaotic atmosphere.

Featuring the sonic prowess of all four of its members, Spectral Voice weave a nice sonic tapestry with a level of excellence that surpasses their own high standards. Furthermore, Sparagmos has the kind of power that grows on the listener and wants you to return for more visitations. Despite of being demonic, confusing and unsettling to times, Sparagmos is also oddly very listenable too. In conclusion; Sparagmos unquestionably stands as one of doom/death metal highlights of 2024.

For additional info on this exceptional record visit https://darkdescentrecords.bandcamp.com/album/sparagmos