Spectral Voice – Sparagmos
Release Date: 9th February 2024
Label: Dark Descent
Bandcamp
Genre: Death Doom, Death Metal.
FFO: Blood Incantation, Mortiferum, Krypts, Incantation.
Review By: Eric Wilt
While Blood Incantation has, in recent years, been exploring soundscapes (for the most part)—having only released one death metal song since 2019’s masterful Hidden History of the Human Race—the same can’t be said for Spectral Voice. This is noteworthy because the bands share three members. Guitarists Morris Kolontyrsky and Paul Riedl and bassist Jeff Barrett man the strings in both Blood Incantation and Spectral Voice, so you know from the outset that you’re going to be getting some impeccably written and enjoyably challenging death metal. Joining Kolontyrsky, Riedl, and Barrett in Spectral Voice is drummer and vocalist Eli Wendler, and together they are set to release their second full length through Dark Descent Records, the aptly titled Sparagmos.
If you are familiar with Spectral Voice, you know that they play bombastic death-doom that is cavernous and atmospheric, and as with Blood Incantation, the music is god-tier. On Sparagmos, Spectral Voice has cemented their place as leaders of the death-doom genre. Consisting of four songs stretching across forty-five minutes, Sparagmos is filled with massive instrumentation accompanied by hellish, keening vocals.
The album begins with Be Cadaver, a slow to mid-paced doom number that evokes infinite hopelessness with its stark yet heavy riffing and Wendler’s tortured wails. You get a real feel for the cavernous atmosphere that the band was going for on this track. At around the ten-minute mark, Spectral Voice changes gears a bit and finishes the song in a more funeral doom style that adds to the feeling of desolation that the song brings to mind. Red Feasts Condensed into One comes next and shows that Spectral Voice is just as comfortable playing at a bone-crushing pace as they are playing low and slow. The tempo of the song varies, and there are many moments of crushing doom, but there’s also a fair amount of death metal for those who find doom a tad tedious from time to time. Sinew Censer and Death’s Knell Rings in Eternity follow in the steps of Red Feasts, as Spectral Voice are as comfortable lumbering at a glacial pace as they are ripping off sections of blastbeat laden, face-melting death metal. The mix of the two keeps the music fresh, even as two of the songs top out at over thirteen minutes in length.
If you love death-doom, you already know about Spectral Voice and have been waiting impatiently for them to release this, their second full-length of new material. If this describes you, Sparagmos is definitely worth the wait. If you don’t know of Spectral Voice, now is the time to find out because they have released one of the finest records that will come out in 2024. 
(5 / 5)
