Spectral Voice‘s newest effort is a colossal and gigantic piece crafted remarkably by these four members, who convey an oppressive and crushing treat to fans of the genre. The four monolithic tracks crawl into a slow riffage and draw unearthly landscapes of hellish valleys and creeping mountains covered by the misty moon. Spectral Voice continues to emphasize its macabre and mournful funeral requiem-like riffs which have defined the band’s debut album “Eroded Corridors of Unbeing”. Likewise, the sophomore meticulously illustrates the crushing heaviness of the guitars and the creepy cavernous growls and crushing drum beats in the opening track “Be Cadaver”.

Spectral Voice imposes its unique sound by interweaving the slow lethargic tempos with the mid-tempo of crushing riffs and a sepulchral atmosphere that has been perfected by the band. The blasting sections come like a heavy storm of calamity that creates murky, dismal circumambience that shrouds the listener in the cold darkness. The band gives ample space for the atmosphere to flow in the background, and it’s certainly one of the traits of Spectral Voice in infusing the otherworldly eeriness, showing every nuance of death doom in such a magnificent manifestation from the scourge of the blasting drums, tremolo riffs to the slower sections that leaves you itching for more.

You wouldn’t find any characteristic of Blood Incantation despite the band consisting of three members, the whole guitar setting is out of this world. The lead guitars and the sonic background are perfectly layered with the clean chanting and thriving on dark atmospheric funeral scape creeping in the dismal gloom.

The crushing heaviness is unleashed on the following track “Red Feasts Condensed Into One” which takes you further into the desolate depths of the abyss, the massive coldness soaked by eerie growls and brimming through the echoes of the crushing drums. There’s a lot of bleakness as the song builds up slowly, displaying a great knack of instrumentation and guitar hooks befitting the band’s unparalleled ability to channel a truly sepulchral feel.

The sonic mystery of “Sparagmos” is perfectly enhanced through the haunted ambient samples that are integrated into the lengthy song structure, despite the similarity to the band Disembowelment, Spectral Voice has reached the climax of culmination with this album. The eeriness of the slow drums and the funeral-paced riffs enhance every attribute of this track. The guitar riffs are massive, lead guitar melodies, and crushing double bass drums are subversive in every sense, and the cymbals add another effect, and the whole sound is immense and bleakly distorted.

“Sparagmos” presents an ultra-morbid doomy spectacle not only this but Spectral Voice abruptly plunges into heavy blasting. Even the slower sections are embedded with infectious death-doom riffs, the drumming is also very much in contrast with the atmosphere. The slower moments are full of creeps and ornamented guitar chords painting dreary visions of desolate abyss. “Sinew Censer” injects oppressive tremolos and begins to push through spacey soundscapes as the vocals shift to a cavernous growling effect that makes the whole atmosphere feel more unnatural where the guitars crawl at a funeral pace.

The growling effect fits with the dense dark tempos, its loud and booming drums then traverse the grotesque sculpted riffs twisting into an agonizing and unsettling moment with melodies utilized in the ending of the song. The horrifying madness emerging from the deep misty darkness and followed by heavy guitar chugs, the music truly touches the unhinged and atmospheric persona of Spectral Voice.

The final track “Death’s Knell Rings in Eternity” opens with infectious waves of tremolos and gives a surreal dark experience that is quite chilling and bleak. The slow buildup of the double bass and the churning death/doom riffs shows the level of expertise that Spectral Voice can stomp your soul into sledgehammering drum beats. The spectral growls are of sheer brutality, as well as the chugging of the guitars and the bass guitar contributing to the booming wall of sound. This is a very unpredictable track with a unique approach that manages to bridge misanthropy and extreme heaviness with the drums displaying some intermittent blasting sections.

The soul-crushing experience will leave you weary and drained of life by its cavernous snarling growls. Instead of sounding predictable, the track offers something unexpected and maneuvers into obscure morbid themes and fuses them into a slow-paced crawling evoking something indistinguishable.

The eerie song arrangements, the riffing, and the sinister growling spew something that sounds odd. However, the slower parts add the elements of death doom even when the whole atmosphere settles ominously it shows how “Sparagmos” is an ultra-slow death doom album that belongs to the peripheral realm of cavernous death metal. Everything from the reverb-drenched growls, the heavy guitar tone, and the songwriting stands out as one of the best records of the year 2024.

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