Spectral Wound - A Diabolic Thirst review
| Band: | Spectral Wound |
| Album: | A Diabolic Thirst |
| Style: | Black metal |
| Release date: | April 16, 2021 |
| A review by: | Dream Taster |
01. Imperial Saison Noire
02. Frigid And Spellbound
03. Soul Destroying Black Debauchery
04. Mausoleal Drift
05. Fair Lucifer, Sad Relic
06. Diabolic Immanence
Intensity. Beauty. Death. Solace. Hailing from my home base of Montreal, Quebec, Canada, Spectral Wound had unleashed their unrelenting brand of melancholic black metal in 2016 with Terra Nullius. Then came Infernal Decadence in 2018; a brutal offering of a rare nature. Enters A Diabolic Thirst. Six songs over forty minutes of ferocious music. This album is very much made out of the same mold from previous releases.
The opener "Imperial Saison Noire" - besides being an awesome name for an imperial stout - crushes from the start and sets the mood for what is to come. It is emotionally intense, melancholic death/black with a strong malevolent aura. Essences of Darkthrone and Dark Funeral come to mind when listening to Spectral Wound. Most of the guitar work and atmospheres on the second half of "Frigid and Spellbound" might also evoke Bathory. So it is fair to say that blackened death elements are present as well. Spectral Wound are indeed Canadians, but the blazing sound and on-point shrieks/vocals are definitely closer to something we usually would expect out of Sweden.
The brilliance of their music relies heavily on the musicians ease to change the tempo several times within a song such as on "Mausoleal Drift" while retaining all of the harshness. Another strength is that memorable guitars riffs and licks have a way to surface despite the intensity. All of this allows them to shape the different emotions along the way. It also makes their sound captivating. As was the case on their previous albums, the production is tight and fitting. It makes for the perfect setting for those evil vibes to emanate easily. The blasting "Fair Lucifer, Sad Relic" takes that "Swedish" black metal sound to another level while "Diabolic Immanence" sums up everything great about this album and packages it into one final kick in the teeth. Rarely had I experienced such an intense album and immediately craved to play it whole again.
Expect your specter to be wounded by the black melancholy of A Diabolic Thirst. Spectral Wound have released another intense sonic experience. This comes highly recommended if you like your black metal pure and straightforward, guitar-led, keyboard-light and choir-less. Quench your thirst.
Rating breakdown
| Performance: | 8 |
| Songwriting: | 8 |
| Originality: | 7 |
| Production: | 9 |
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Written on 19.04.2021 by
Bringing you reviews of quality music and interesting questions such as: "A picture is worth a thousand words. How many words is a song worth?" I have only got so much patience and skills, you do the math. |
Comments
Comments: 3
Visited by: 145 users
| Uxküll Posts: 384  |
Their last album made it into my best of metal list and they deserve it, excited to listen to this new release in its entirety.
---- "Nullum unquam exstitit magnum igenium sine aliqua dementia [there was never great genius without some madness]." Best of Metal A-Z: http://metalstorm.net/users/lists.php?user_id=158339
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| Troy Killjoy perfunctionist Staff Posts: 21306  |
Despite my efforts to showcase Canadian black metal outside of Quebec, those French fucks keep coming out with next-level shit that takes the overall scene to a whole other level. These guys combine the intensity of Dark Funeral (as you mentioned) with the hypnotic, repetitive riffing of Mgła and the cold atmosphere of Immortal while paying homage to the rest of the late 90s/early 2000s Scandinavian scene so fluidly you'd be hard-pressed to guess their origin. It errs on the side of being maybe a little too clinical in its instrumentation but the vocal prowess helps balance the delivery, and the masterful production gives its second-wave influence a sense of modernity.
---- "Wise men talk because they have something to say; fools because they have to say something."
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| tintinb Posts: 2022 |
This is the purest form of black metal, a 24 carat black metal if you may. 
---- Leeches everywhere.
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