Band:	Am I In Trouble?
Album:	Spectrum
Style:	Blackened avantgarde metal, Post black metal, Progressive black metal
Release date:	January 03, 2025
A review by:	RaduP

01. Yellow
02. White
03. Pink
04. Red [Spectrum version]
05. Blue
06. Black
07. Green

No, Steve, why would you be in trouble for trying to show how metal music isn't always black and white?

When this album was released more than a month ago, it was one of the first 2025 albums to get my attention. It's quite clear from the presentation that there's something non-conventional about it, from the band name being a question, and one that does give you a bit of a pause as a band name when you're reading it, to titling your one-man band's record "Spectrum", clearly inviting a more nuanced look at what the band is presenting. My initial impression was positive, but I also felt that the album's execution lacked in comparison to its concept and presentation. But the fact that one month later the album is still on my mind, proved that I needed to give it another go.

First off, this is a one-man band, a project of one Steve Wiener. He also plays in two other bands that are not yet in our database and are also really new, so I doubt most people reading this would have had any other contact with his work previously, and neither did I. There are some extra musicians, a drummer for the core songs, the occasional flutes, and some guest guitar and vocal spots, but for the most part Spectrum doesn't really have that organic "band" feel, instead definitely feeling like this is the work of one person trying to be as authentic as feasibly possible to their vision. And, in Spectrum's case, the concept of the color spectrum is applied to metal for, what is described in the Bandcamp page as "a love-letter to the eclecticism and experimentation displayed in the early-to-mid 2000s avantgarde black metal explosion".

There are definitely bits of that aforementioned avant-garde black metal explosion to be found here, from Dødheimsgard to Arcturus to Virus to Code, all bands that broke the mold for black metal into a more expansive outside focus that often left little of the original black metal skeleton, an approach that might not feel as avant-garde in 2025 as it did in 2000, but whose residual uncanniness still makes that term feel relevant, especially because of how Am I In Trouble?'s DIY approach feeds that sense of authenticity and disregard for the box.

That DIY approach does make some of Spectrum feel a bit odd in a way that doesn't always work in favor of the music, with Steve's clean vocals especially leaving too awkward of an impression. The arrangements fit a lot of progressive touches, a dash of Kayo Dot-ish experimental post-rock, and just a bit of folk, mostly courtesy of the flutes and the bookending tracks; and they do a good job of integrating them with the original black metal base. Awkwardness aside, it does feel like a lot of it is rather inexperience than lack of skill, and with the album barely surpassing the thirty minutes mark (at a possibly intentionally pleasing 31:13 runtime), it's not one that tests the patience of whoever would find it too awkward for comfort.