Review Summary: Near Death Grimness.
Don't let the artwork and album title fool you, for Spektr are not exactly what one would classify as a typical black metal band. Though both things mentioned appear cliched and generic,
Near Death Experience is an eccentric and just plain weird album from French musicians named kl.K. and Hth, whatever those are supposed to imply.
"The Violent Stink of Twitching Terror" begins the album with three minutes of droning, foreboding ambience, predicting the black cloud of impossibly distorted guitars, shrieks, and mysterious samples that only add more to the atmosphere. "Astral Descent" and "Phantom Reality" follow through with an even more ghastly approach, with menacing but simple drumming and the trademark wall of sound. Around six minutes in, "Phantom Reality" becomes the soundtrack to an asylum in winter, with alarm clock ticking and a slow barrage of riffs. kl.K. even throws in a blast beat for good measure.
However, the most interesting composition on
Near Death Experience is "Whatever the Case May Be". Once again beginning with an eerie sort of calm, the band come in with a swung jazz beat and vintage sounding crackles and hisses. The beat is repeated throughout, until the occasional barrage of guitars comes in to remind you that Spektr are essentially a metal band. Still, "Whatever the Case May Be" proves that you can be horrifying and disturbing without doing much at all. "Disturbing Sign" follows with a short burst of energy, and then settles back into the sort of calm semblance that the band intend to provide with their ambient leanings.
Near Death Experience is a good album. It may even be a great album. But really, Spektr and other 'experimental black metal' bands aren't for everyone, even within the genre. Though it is a particularly solid album, the songs can drag longer than they need to if not in the right mindset for this kind of music. At the least,
Near Death Experience is an interesting and peculiar album, and one of the more memorable of 2006. At the most, it's a wonderfully orphic piece of black metal that never fails to do exactly what it's meant to do.
