Review Summary: Prepare for another round of slaying beasts and drinking your alcoholic beverage of choice.
You're in a deep, forgotten tomb. You can hear the crackling of the torch you brought down with you. But whats that? Theres something else! You can hear moaning echoing off the stone walls. Cautious, you press on. As you walk the empty, dark halls another sound catches your ear, a guitar lead. Who plays music in a place like this? With the moaning still following you, you round a corner, only to be greeted up a huge thud. And then you see..
Spectral, a band hailing from Germany incorperate black/thrash/folk influences into thier music, and do so with great success. The 35 second intro, which was all described above, leads into the fantastically melodic and explosive 'Lord of Fire'. With its rushed and frantic riffing, desperate sounding vocals (where the black metal influences can be heard) and the bombastic drumming, it really is a great introduction.
After the aural assault that was 'Lord of Fire' the next song, entitled 'Tank Attack' is there and ready to make sure you keep your head banging. Again, fast riffing and bombastic drumming lead the song forward with a change of pace coming in around the 2:20 mark, slowing down with military-esc drumming and catchy lead before the next aural assault takes you.
The album follows very closely to what was described, and offers some surpirses. 'Forces of Evil' comes into play with a Voice Over of a little girl singing to her self before gasping to herself and the roar of a mighty beast comes forward. Then the sound of steel cuts the air and the beast falls to the ground, presumably dead. The little girl then laughs and continues on her way. Folk influences can be heard in 'Death of a King' with its folky acoustic intro which appears throughout the song. The vocals also adopt a deep, gutteral sound AND cleanly sung chants. It really wouldn't be out of place on an Ensiferum album.
Its a shame that Spectral don't stray too far from the formula described (apart from Death of a King) as it can begin to drag after a while. A little more variety and experimentation would have brought the album up a notch or two. But for what it is, a kick-ass metal album for all the fans of p*ssing around and slaying beasts, you could do alot worse than Spectrals Gateway to Death.
