First Spell

Gehenna's 'First Spell' is the band's initial major offering and the pinnacle of their early unique sound. 'First Spell' is a fusion of simple, almost passive, melodic black metal, melded with a strong gothic overtone.

Two basic, yet very important elements push 'First Spell' out of the crowd and into its own personal niche. The raspy, choked near-whispers that comprise the vocal work lurch out of the speakers like a ghostly fog to give a doomy, death-like feel to the whole release. The keyboard work here is crucial as well, as it is the loudest, most musically driving element of the mix both leading and anchoring tracks as they form, expand and die away. Without such a strong relationship between the vocals and keyboards, and their respective sounds and roles individually, this disc would be a let-down.

The guitar work is very simple and does not represent a strong presence in the mix and is lacking in drive and power, both in form and feel, which is one of the only real weaknesses of 'First Spell'. There are minor leads and harmonies scattered about 'First Spell' and the clean, somewhat brittle, arpeggios in "Unearthly Loose Palace" are a nice accent, but otherwise the fretwork sticks to basic formulated power chords running through simple song structures, either backing or being backed by the essential keyboards. Dirge Rep's percussion work feels passive and weak as well. Most of the time, the drums are very straightforward double-bass rhythms with little to no variety aside from the occasional stint into double-time. The keyboards are the most important musical object in this release, giving 'First Spell' its emotional substance and wide, cavernous, ghostly atmosphere. The keyboards add the necessary element of variety, sometimes serving as the lead (such as the vibrant church organ in the album opener "Shivering Voice of the Ghost", with it's center-stage performance coming just after two minutes into the track) and other times serving as a well-executed backdrop to an already formed theme or idea, such as the simple, but very effective chords in 'The Conquering of Hirsir". The album's tracks all play through at a slow to moderate pace, so if you're expecting some of the intensity and speed of more modern Gehenna releases...this isn't it.

The production of 'First Spell' lacks a significant low-end presence, but wraps itself tightly in a blanket of warm, analog mids and highs, with an ambient, spacey atmosphere which works to give the album it's veiled, ghost-like emotion. As previously stated, drums and guitars could have been a bit louder to enforce their sound and roles, but because of that the vocals and keyboards (again, the best part of 'First Spell') take the forefront, it's a near-even tradeoff. As for Bass? No. You'd really probably have to EQ your stereo system to even begin to goad it out of the mix.

The lyrics are pretty simple, and the song titles are effective at summarizing the lyrical content within. There is nothing extravagant, nor anything standoffish in terms of written prowess, with most songs dealing with a worldly sense of dread and that therein. The best lyrics on the album come from the opener, "Shivering Voice of the Ghost", in which a better title could not have been picked with it's combination of lyrics, death-like rasps for vocals, and crisp, haunting keyboard work.

'First Spell' is ultimately going to appeal to fans of slower, more laid-back melodic black metal and fans of dirge-like goth metal. Maybe even a few 'part-time' Doom metal fans would appreciate this. Fans of newer, modern Gehenna actually may not be so interested, as this is Gehenna's unique release before this particular sound began to dwindle away with future albums, opting for a more modernized combination of moderate paced black and death metal. This is definitely worth a listen from any of the above groups, and for being nearly a decade and a half old, 'First Spell' is still pretty easy to find at a reasonable price. The only drawback is that the album is less than half an hour in length, spread across only five songs.

Outside of 'First Spell's weak spots in terms of some frail production values and short running time, this disc is one of the only albums I've come to appreciate with this type of 'doom and gloom' style of metal. If all of the above fits into your tastes, then invest your time and money into it.