Review Summary: Spell books for the sinister.
Songs of Blood and Mire is a celebration of all things haunting and frightful in a wonderfully cheeky sense. By no means is it the harrowing nightmare fuel of Akhlys, or the dismal disintegrating madness of bands like Howls of Ebb or Swallowed. Rather the quasi-classic riffage of bands like Sargeist/Behexen are infused with almost d-beat style drum patterns at points (“Less and Less Human” and “Fevers and Suffering” being driven by plodding kick-snare and are a nice counterpart to the records otherwise thunderous drum patterns/fills). It’s wandering through thick cemetery fog with the boys after having far too many cheap ***ty malts, or the crisp cool air that churns up scarlet leaves on a Halloween night, with loads of ghouls and witches about. Is this, however, a jam for a small child whose heaviest exposure to music may not have veered far past “Baby Shark”? I might say not.
What then makes this album appreciable beyond its campy affairs is that there’s an immaculate dedication to balance. The riffs are simple enough to pack a million hooks per-***ing-second, but with enough nuance to maintain a healthy vigor. The vocals scorch with the ferocity of a great dragon but have just enough frost to chill like the iciest of wraiths. The production on whole is clear and gives the album luster without detracting from the perfect amount of fuzz to -slightly- permeate the record (even if it is noticeably crunchier on the aforementioned “Fevers and Suffering”.) In particular the nuance in production actually serves the tone of this record extremely well, as it elevates the meatier tones where need be as well as more grandiose and spacious melodies (the end to “Twelve Moons in Hell” being potentially one of the most cathartic moments in all of black metal).
This is where the crossroads of ingenuity and flattery lie. Whilst donning their typical studded leather arm sleeves, swirling a goblet of “sacred blood of a martyr” (Barefoot wine from the convenient), and maintaining a complexion pasty enough that corpse paint becomes unnecessary, Spectral Wound show that they are a channeled essence of all things black metal. Yet still, they are dedicated to mastery of such a sound trodden a thousand times, through a nuanced understanding of engagement, energy, and sheer goddamn fun. Upon the hallowed soil in which their grievous garden grows, they toil and triumph until everything sprouts-everything spooky, ghastly, and spectral.
