Band:	Spectral (ROM)
Album:	Neural Correlates Of Hate
Style:	Progressive death metal, Technical death metal
Release date:	March 12, 2018
A review by:	RaduP

01. Artificial Storage
02. Ashes To Dust
03. Nihilist
04. Empathy
05. Neural Correlates Of Hate
06. Hallucinatory Authorization
07. Hatred
08. Divided We Fall
09. Into The Further

Christian Münzner plays on this record, too. But it's just a solo.

Now that I have your attention, let's talk about how this album came to be. Spectral have been around since 2004 and have put out an EP so far; they started working on Neural Correlates Of Hate around 2009, so this album took close to ten years to release. The writing was finished around 2013, coincidentally after the mainman's short sting with Taine, a Death worship band, which may explain the extra progressive and technical improvements that this album has over its predecessor. Around 2015, Andrei Calmuc of CodeRed joined on vocals, and Septimiu Hărşan left to join Pestilence and was replaced by Romain Goulon, who has played with Necrophagist (but only live) and with Disavowed. Besides Christian Münzner's solo, there's another guitar solo by Calin Paraschiv of Necrovile and Pestilence.

So with the namedrops out of the way, let's get to the music itself. With veteran musicians and obvious technical chops, Neural Correlates Of Hate is not in danger of falling into the bad category, only the generic and overdone one. Taking huge influence from Necrophagist, Spawn Of Possession and a bit of later era Death, it does often seem like Spectral lack some of their own flair instead of just being good tech death. That is a pitfall that many bands don't manage to avoid, but regardless, Spectral manage to pull of an intense and very well done rehash of the heyday of tech. Despite not being overly in-your-face about the abilities of the members, those do make themselves very obvious and put to good use in the complex compositions, taking equally from brutal death and progressive death. The production and the performance, while not absolutely top-notch, work together seamlessly to deliver 45 minutes of riffs, blasts, solos, and breeeeees.

Seeking mostly to pay tribute to their own influences and appeal to an established niche rather than reinvent the wheel, Neural Correlates Of Hate will satisfy those still hoping Necrophagist or Spawn Of Possession would release a new album. Dive into the further.