Spectral Torture

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Band(s): Spectral Torture
Label(s): Self-Released
Release Format(s): Demo, Digital
Release Year: 2023
Review Date: August 24, 2023
Author(s): Satanik Skum

Spectral torture is a one man project from the United States, but this demo would sound at home with the likes of Mutiilation, Vlad Tepes, Seviss, and other classic bands from the early French Black Metal scene. This is as raw as it gets, creepy and unsettling with an incredibly DIY feeling to the music. The drums sound legitimately like metal bins being violently beaten, the bass is swamped in the mix behind a razor sharp storm of tremolo picked guitar and howled vocals.

The six minute second track ‘Beholding the Flesh of Banat’ shows off the dynamics that this project is capable of, switching effortlessly between tempos, while E.X seemingly shrieks his head off. I’m not normally a fan of the reverb drenched vocals that most modern Raw Black metal musicians use, but E.X does prove himself as a standout, his long snarls and howls genuinely sound pained and not at all forced.

The intro track ‘Vampyric Sanguine Lust’ is really good keyboard ambience, it has an almost sound collage like quality which sets up the listener for the claustrophobic black metal nightmare they’re about to experience.

While not reinventing the wheel, Spectral Torture has taken all the tropes of modern Raw Black Metal and pushed them to their extremes, making for a hellish and frightening 18 minute listen which flirts ugliness and beauty to create something true my deserving of the “vampyric” label.

Country: USA
Style: Black Metal
Links: Bandcamp

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Spectral Torture

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