Review by Sonny for Vengeful Spectre - Vengeful Spectre (2020)

This is the debut album from Guangdong Province's 殞煞 (a.k.a. Vengeful Spectre). Now I've got to admit to being fairly ignorant as to the extent and veracity of the chinese black metal scene, but if this is anything to go by, then it's got to be in fairly good shape. I don't want to sound patronising, but this took me completely by surprise and it fuckin' rips! Ferocious sounding, well-written melodic black metal that also incorporates elements of chinese folk music in a really organic way that works fantastically well. In fact, I really can't believe how superbly the folk elements work, but the tremolo nature of chinese strings is absolutely made for black metal and I've always loved the sound of those bamboo flutes anyway. The singer shrieks and screams his way through the tracks in a manner that must have left his vocal chords in tatters come album's end. I have no idea what he's singing, but it sounds amazing and I'm sure must be something to do with honourable battle and all that - just check out the cover (which is also gorgeous). It may be a little overproduced for black metal, sounding very clean indeed, but it seems a minor quibble to complain that it "doesn't sound shitty enough for black metal" when the music just works so damn well. These Chinese Rocks - and I'm hooked!