Album Review: Spectral Voice – “Sparagmos” (Death/Doom)

Written by Kep

Spectral Voice is one of those projects that it seems like everyone loves. And for good reason; their 2017 debut full-length Eroded Corridors of Unbeing is the stuff of death/doom legend. It blended the sort of down and dirty death metal of Undergang or Krypts with the evil trudging of Incantation and the ritualistic eeriness of diSEMBOWELMENT, crafting an atmosphere of cavernous cosmic horror that really stuck with listeners. It’s been seven years now, and though they stayed quietly active during that time with three splits (Vastum, Anhedonist, and Undergang, to make a total of five in the discography along with their 2015 and 2016 splits with Blood Incantation and Phrenelith) and a couple demos/comps, the metal masses have been praying for another LP. And some sort of god must have heard those invocations, though based on the sounds on Sparagmos, we might not want to encounter that particular deity. 

The sophomore effort sees Spectral Voice breaking new ground…or perhaps “plumbing new depths” might be the more appropriate turn of phrase. Sparagmos takes us through the yawning mouth of a stone cavern, down through passages of moss-ridden rock, further, always further down, where lime water drips from crags overhead and light is but a dim memory of something from another life. Here, in the deepest caverns, Spectral Voice would have us bear witness to ancient rituals of bone and hair, and to forget that which we knew of the cosmos in favor of the carnal. 

That’s all an unbearably wordy way of saying that while Sparagmos will be familiar to fans of the project, they’ve undeniably moved in a new direction here, and to great effect. The album’s atmosphere is dark and brooding but also hypnotic and entrancing, and uses things like bells, chimes, and ambient textures to heighten a feeling of subterranean ritual. There are certainly passages of pummeling death metal here, like the driving opening and haunting melodic riff of “Sinew Censer” or the hideous groove that lies at the center of “Be Cadaver”, but each of those moments seem to end in a transformation, as the band leads us in devolution, back to something slower and baser. The rhythms stretch and contort, breaking and reforming anew in horrid werewolf-style transformation. 

The lineup, of course, is an all-star grouping of some of the Colorado metal scene’s most notable people. The trio of Paul Riedl (guitar), Morris Kolontyrsky (guitar), and Jeff Barrett (bass) are three-quarters of death metal darlings Blood Incantation, and drummer/vocalist Eli Wendler is the frontman of black/death filthmongers Black Curse, where Kolontyrsky also plays bass. It’s a group of songwriters that couldn’t be more proven, and they collectively pour some of their best work here in this particularly grim, drawn-out ode to death and darkness. 

There’s something animalistic about the work of Wendler here, whose combination of wild snarls, screams, and earthshaking growls feels paired perfectly with his flailing, bestial style behind the kit. The cavernous production helps here too: the kick and toms sound oddly soft and hollow, like he’s beating on stretched human skin, and the cymbals often feel as though they’re close but just out of sight. The drums are used as a storytelling engine, moving us from cavern to stygian passage and cavern again, pressing tempo and ahead and then crushing it back into line, the tracks rising and falling with their rhythms like the dreaming breaths of a slumbering beast. The transitional moments between opener “Be Cadaver” and second track “Red Feasts Condensed into One” feature thundering descending drum licks, brutish and rough, with the captivating ring of ritual bells that tell us something darker and more horrifying is yet to come. 

Sometimes bits of slow drifting chant-like melody will float through the texture, as though reaching our ears from a space further down in the darkness; is it really voices we hear, or just the low whistle of a breeze? Other times the music will stretch wider and slow guitar tones will gleam like the soft glow of burnished gold as it’s first touched by a lick of candlelight. Ominous tones blare incessantly like distant warnings, enormous passages of violence will pause to deliver uneasy ambience and the clicking of ritual bones. Eerie funereal riffs repeat incessantly, heedless of rhythmic shifts beneath them, but then begrudgingly stretch in hideous fashion as though controlled against their will. Violent attacks on the bass like bonecrunching clubs shatter moments of relative calm with muscular death rattles. 

Final track “Death’s Knell Rings in Eternity” closes the album’s 46 minutes with some of the finest death/doom you will ever hear. Rising and falling from simple haunting funeral doom dirges to blasting chaos, the dichotomy of crushing slow ritual procession and ecstatic frenzied horror blend into one monstrous whole. Vocals hiss and shriek and echo, drenched in reverb, seeming to come from multiple throats and from all sides. The experience comes to a close after a slow, lingering denouement, the participants fading slowly into the distance, as though we’re being left alone, or perhaps we’ve managed to wander out of our fugue state; or have we simply woken from some terrible dream?

THE BOTTOM LINE

No two ways about it, folks. Sparagmos is the best record I’ve heard so far in 2024 and will be on AOTY lists come December. When it comes to death/doom of this particular breed—rough around the edges, ritualistic, cavernous, carnal—it doesn’t get much better than this.