Band:	Spider God
Album:	The Killing Room
Style:	Melodic black metal
Release date:	December 25, 2023
A review by:	X-Ray Rod

01. 入場 (Enter)
02. 蜘蛛 (S.p.i.d.e.r.g.o.d.)
03. 六さん (Roku San)
04. シリコンバレーの魔女 (Silicon Witch)
05. ダークウェブ (The Black Web)
06. 不可知の雲 (Cloud Of Unknowing)
07. 殺人室 (The Killing Room)
08. 再入場 (Re-enter)

Spider God have provoked many reactions with their pop covers and for mixing black metal with a sense of ultra melody. Enter now The Killing Room and the element of ultra groove.

Like most people who know the band, I discovered Spider God through their novelty album, Black Renditions, which was a collection of pop songs under the cloak of ferocious yet highly melodic black metal. I personally fell in love with the idea, as it cleverly kickstarts mental discussions about what guidelines exist for each music genre and how radically different styles can have much more in common than we dare to admit.

I had great expectations for the project's first “real” debut album, Fly In The Trap. While I enjoyed the experience, I had my doubts with the polished production. It surely made the melodies stand out more, but it also took away some of the bite of the furious riffs and placed the vocals too high on the mix. For The Killing Room, the production still lends itself to be a bit too clean at times, with some of the tremolo riffs and blast beats diving into an “uncanny valley”- level of polishing. But this time around, Spider God puts forward a more intriguing genre-blending that justifies this clean sound, thus achieving a more cohesive album than the previous one.

After a short ambient intro, Spider God hit you with what will end up being its main weapon throughout the 34 minutes of The Killing Room: Catchy-as-hell groove. The opening track, “S.p.i.d.e.r.g.o.d.”, carries effective hooks and hard rock influence that reminds me of acts like Kvelertak. Groove takes different forms though, and Spider God mix their melodic black metal with some seriously slick death rock and post-punk touches in the songs “Silicon Witch” and “The Black Web”. Here, the bass is prominent and rich in attitude. The mixing of infectious catchiness alongside intense guitar playing gives off Japanese vibes in more ways than just the song titles. I could totally see some of these riffs as some sort of anime opening, or perhaps it is because I can see some resemblance of Sigh in Spider God’s style of “horror melody”.

Despite the highlights I previously mentioned, the album’s main course is definitely the title track. Clocking at over 10 minutes, it is Spider God's longest song to date by a large margin, and the effort put into the track is noticeable. It is an epic ride with synths that spark the feeling of adventure. The bass on this track is probably among the best I’ve heard this year. It has an impeccable sense of groove that I can’t help but imagine myself driving a roofless car to at high speeds through streets infested with neon lights: An infectious song that should leave everyone with a smile on their face, which is an interesting thing for a black metal outfit to do, when you think about it.

With The Killing Room, Spider God redeem themselves from some of the shortcomings found in their previous opus. I'm convinced that there is more unlocked potential; now that the band has added other styles to their formula, I'm curious as to what they will do next.