Portland Oregan’s experimental Black Metal force Spirit Possession are back yet again to the resounding joy of the extreme music world with their third full-length studio album, entitled ‘Cathedral Speech’. Since the turn of the current decade, this devilishly demonic duo have seized their claim to the upper-echelon of notoriety within the contemporary scene. The first two Spirit Possession albums (2020’s self-titled and 2023’s ‘Of the Sign…’) demonstrated the band’s wicked and cartoonishly evil approach to chaotic and ludicrously energetic revelry. The two records were both highly-exciting and well-performed offerings that dealt with themes of ghostly demonic magic. The only notable drawback to the band’s material until now is that these initial albums showcased minimal stylistic evolution between one another and album number two seemed to almost identically retrace most of its predecessor’s core ideas. This new record seems to take certain strides in order to further the atmospheric territory of the band’s sound whilst retaining the jittery renowned busyness of their central instrumentation.
Teasing this mischievous poltergeist out into the open corridor is the album’s initial single and title track. I find the very first moments of the song to be beautifully befitting of its title; the high pitch rattling trill note guitar note pattern and feminine choral vocal section that collectively cascades downwards to unleash the paranormal energetic nature of the band, all feels rather apt for an imaginary cathedral setting. The familiar ricocheting vocal delays synonymous with the band’s sound ping around the mix like a rapidly vanishing and reappearing ghost. The central riffs and drum patterns are quite typical for the SP at this point, but I do love it when the band calms things down for a short segment to introduce a classical sounding twelve string guitar effect. This small addition, which they proceed to imbue into the louder instrumentation later on in the track, adds a grandiose angle to the band’s sound. This beautiful regal guitar sound makes another appearance on the following instrumental track ‘Backwards Commandments’, where the softer, enticing, large-scale guitar progression feels like tasteful new ground for the band’s world-building.
The opening third of ‘Hanged Angels as Patternwalls’ employs a rather bland recycling of the stereotypical SP assault but then the pace devolves into a doomier, more sustained movement that is actually particularly engaging, plainly due to how opposed its slower tempo is compared to the band’s typical frantic dimension. ‘The Sharpening’ runs repeated laps around the routine course of the band’s style and its six-plus minutes of runtime achieve startlingly little in the process. ‘First Levitation (Accursed Entrances)’ begins strong with an enticing Arabian-tinged opening bass line before indulging in some of the most well thought-out riffing that the album has to offer. Ultimately, it’s somewhat disappointing that the track then goes on to showcase little else to make this song into a stand-out moment amongst the rest of the album. The song ‘Second Liturgy (…Impossible Exits)’ drags a variety of ideas into the frame that are very refreshing by this point. The slowly ascending central riff of the song’s initial progression is great and I also love the short moment of dissonant lucid ambience that builds tension right before we are presented with a hearty serving of particularly solid guitar parts. The quieter and vaguely folky sections of the closing cut ‘Trinity Possessor (…In Ten Hells)’ make for some great transitional moments. Another aspect of the track that I admire is when the band are raining fire down in the louder parts they employ an added degree of fury to this last song that makes this easily the most exciting track on the album.
‘Cathedral Speech’ imbues the Spirit Possession sound with some much needed fresh ideas and also features some of the band’s best guitar work to date. Unfortunately, when the duo is in full swing, they still all too often stick to their annoyingly routine core approach. They’re now three incredibly similar albums in, and by this point, the vocal effects and one-dimensional frantic dynamics have become nothing more than a stale gimmick. The album features some very good tracks, but their sound is now so repetitive that it is hard to set the three Spirit Possession albums apart from one another. They’re a talented group and I hope that by the time that album number four arrives, they will refresh their approach enough so as not to confine themselves further into their state of being very much a one-trick pony (a ghost pony, that is…).
