Canada may as well be one of the best scenes in music not only for technical death metal, but for black metal as a whole. I’ve been hearing such wonderful things about Spectral Wound who are a Canadian black metal band that’s been a huge name in the community for the last couple of years and after giving their music and ideologies a fair shot I have to say not only am I impressed by hearing such misanthropic, apprehensive, commendable and occult style of black metal feel so raw, low-fi and frosty bringing back the late 90’s to early 2000’s of extreme metal in the veins of Inquisition, Sargeist, Horna and Behexen to name a few but I’m very intrigued to know I am a fan of Spectral Wound officially.
A Diabolic Thirst is the third full-length album by these Canadians and the first release under Profound Lore Records. With a album only consists of 6 tracks and clocking in around 40 minutes in duration, Spectral Wound’s ability to create a album that is dynamic, experimented and well produced is not only very unorthodox sounding and unadulterated, but the dimensions, growth and maturity from these musicians have taken the world by storm after their follow-up to 2018’s sophomore effort of Infernal Decadence which helped the band displayed their finest efforts in making the album feel unapologetic and chaotic was what fans of the genre have been wanting out of the style in so long. This time however three years later, things start to get more noticeable, and by noticeable I don’t mean everything they’ve done feels repetitive in a sense they copied the formula over and over like most bands do, no, but in contrary, Spectral Wound’s vision to create A Diabolic Thirst took the finest elements of their past releases and have significantly improved themselves as musicians as I truly do feel that this is the best release the band has done in quite awhile.
Musically, Spectral Wound’s style of black metal takes a wide variety of influences primarily the Finnish and Swedish black metal scene but I feel that this album is more melodically driven and atmospheric but I do feel that their formula and soundscapes to make them step foot in the realms of extreme metal is fascinating to me. When you first hear the song Soul Destroying Black Debauchery and pummeling, more energetic presence of Fair Lucifer, Sad Relic which takes their frostbitten guitar riffs, haunting melodies, throaty and bellowing vocal patterns and the presentation on this album truly captured the beauty and the beast to have songs that contain such primal fury but rather taking things to a whole new perspective into the band’s catalog. The band not only simultaneously displayed themselves to feature such mid-pace signatures, doomy passages, aggressive and moody vocal dynamics and the passion and decision-makings Spectral Wound have rightfully earned themselves to be a thrilling band for the underground as years go by. A Diabolic Thirst just shows how much they’ve accomplished and established themselves in such a period of time making A Diabolic Thirst one of the best black metal albums of the new decade.
Overall Score: 9.5/10
Review by Jake Butler
