Necrotic Demos

For a band that has such a massive following in the extreme metal scene, you would think that Spectral Voice would have more than just a full-length. That’s the trick though; they do. Listener’s like me find it cumbersome when a band has so much work spread throughout splits, and a compilation of this kind serves a wonderful dish for my lazy ass. Necrotic Demos not only gives us four songs from prior splits together, but also throws on the Necrotic Doom demo to start us off.

Beginning with said demo, these are three tracks that more or less hint at what’s to come with Eroded Corridors Of Unbeing. Crushing riffs with immense amounts of suspense make up everything here. For being in the demo stage, though, this feels surprisingly cleaner than you’d think. That’s not to say it isn’t a head-crushing blast of disgusting force, because it is; I just find it impressive that you can discern every instrument so well. “The Diffluence Of Ruined Graves” makes its impression the strongest. With eight minutes of gradual slowing and spacing out percussion leading into breakneck speeds, you can only imagine the proverbial burn it creates.

Moving onto the splits side, this is actually where things sound a little muddier. There’s a slight inconsistency between the songs since they come from different years and this wasn’t written in the context of an album, but I do find that to give it a little bit of charm. Considering that not a lot of this derives much from their normal sound, that also helps break things up some. “(Slowly) Claimed By Oblivion” is where Spectral Voice started really heavily laying down the dissonant, empty leads that cast an energy of lifelessness. Its jarring jump into the more abrasive “Peeled Veins” may be the best part of this compilation.

The best way to sum up Necrotic Demos is to call it a little look into the band’s progression within the first five years. I suppose that fits any compilation in the same time span, but fitting it into a work that could act as a full-length gives it just a little edge on others. Necessary for fans who want to hear all of their stuff in one place.

Originally written for ToothAndNailed95.blogspot.com

Denver’s Spectral Voice has been making quite the name for themselves in the underground. Although 3/4 of the lineup also play in Blood Incantation, the accolades and hype this band has received are entirely well earned. With the release of 2017’s “Eroded Corridors of Unbeing,” (which I recently gave a 90% review too), the band stands as one of the best death/doom acts in many years. Dark Descent has teamed up with Spectral Voice to put out this compilation that contains their first demo, along with their tracks from four split 7″ records. If you love the album and need more from this band, look no further than this compilation, as it covers all their other studio recordings to date in one nice package.

The “Necrotic Doom” demo starts off the compilation, comprised of the three tracks that made up their first offering in 2015. These tracks are considerably more raw sounding than later material, but it kind of adds to the overall atmosphere. I find this material has a lot of Finnish death metal influence in comparison to the rest of their output. Rippikoulu comes to mind pretty quick, especially with the down picked, chugging riffs as seen in tracks like “Horrid Phantasm.” The band was only a two piece when they did this material, but they still took the time to layer in their signature eerie melodies and creepy sounds. There’s some ethereal clean guitar bits and even some subtle synthesizers in the background for atmosphere. In addition to these demo tracks, “(Slowly) Claimed by Oblivion,” the track from the Blood Incantation split, was also recorded during the same session. To no surprise, it fits right in with these demo tracks with its gloomy sounds and rawer recording.

The remaining three tracks come from three different splits, and like the full length, were all recorded at World Famous Studio by Pete DeBoer. This guy is a total professional, giving these tracks a huge, natural sound with plenty of clarity and feeling, all while avoiding any lifelessly clinical modern sounds. As for the songs themselves, “Peeled Veins” (from the Phrenelith split) is one of their most straight ahead death metal songs, starting off right away with a tremolo riff, but it still has an expected slow section in the middle. I absolutely love the lead tone that shows up about a third of the way through “Katabatic Depths” (from the Vastum split), the combination of modulation and delay sounds unique and always gets me with every listen. The final track of the compilation is the newest Spectral Voice song, “Ineffable Winds,” which is on a split with the late Anhedonist. It is a lot gloomier than the last couple tracks, and they put some massive echoes/delays on some of the drum parts that gives the impression this was unearthed from a long forgotten cavern.

If you loved “Eroded Corridors of Unbeing,” the “Necrotic Demos” compilation is absolutely worth hearing. I already owned all but two of the splits that are represented on this compilation, and I still bought it. Having all these songs on one CD is convenient, especially since I still use CDs in my car all the time. If you’re into bands like diSEMBOWELMENT, Rippikoulu, Anhedonist and Krypts, this band needs to be on your radar if they aren’t already. Spectral Voice have impressed me with every single release of theirs, and as such, I am desperately waiting for more material from these Denver death/doom demons.