Spectral Wound - A Diabolic Thirst (2021)^{Release ID: 26772}

Falling into the bracket of melodic black metal occupied by the likes of Mgla, the sound of Spectral Lore has more depth than their Polish counterparts.  The Canadians deploy a Behexen-like fury to their pace and tempos which makes for a strangely accessible yet equally frantic experience.  Whilst I do not disagree that large parts of the record sound like they are the same ideas regurgitated and repeated, at the same time I do think that when you do maintain that same level of polish and quality to proceedings then some repetition is more than acceptable.

Setting their stall out early on, Spectral Wound slash open the melody wound from the off with the domineering  Imperial Saison Noire which is as solid an album opener as you could wish for.  It marks the arrival of the album perfectly, sets the pace nicely and whets the appetite immediately for more.  This is black metal played with such a high level of fervid and dogged determination that I cannot help but be captivated from the off.  To a large extent, I don't care if the album fails to vary all that much; when the output is this good why fix what ain't broken?

The sense of urgency and desperation in the song writing and pacing is positively tactile.  Wave after wave of melodic and powerful riffs crash into the listener and still maintain those cold and harsh edges to them at the same time. Tracks such as Mausoleal Drift sound every bit as dank and doom-laden as the title suggests but it all comes to you so effortlessly as you listen, there's no need for any searching or lifting layers here to get to the detail, it is all laid bare for you in all its naked glory.

Some more black metal, this time from a group from Montreal, QC and playing into some of the more melodic traits of the genre, while still maintaining a high level of aggression and intensity throughout these six songs. And while I do find some of the melodies on this record to sound very nice, they don't vary too much from other songs throughout the rest of the album. Many of them maintain the same tempo, use the same tremolo picking patterns in the guitar (usually in the same octave as well), nonstop blast beat percussion and some solid vocals all around. Outside of a handful of moments, most notably on the closer "Diabolic Immanence", a lot of this record feels like comfortable melodic death metal; good melodic death metal mind you, just very pedestrian. I get the same feeling whenever I listen to a Mgła album. Take that for what it's worth.