Spectral Voice - Necrotic Demos
Extremely Rotten Productions - 2020
8/10
For a band that has such a massive following in the extreme metal scene, you would think that Spectral Voice would have more than just a full-length. That’s the trick though; they do. Listener’s like me find it cumbersome when a band has so much work spread throughout splits, and a compilation of this kind serves a wonderful dish for my lazy ass. Necrotic Demos not only gives us four songs from prior splits together, but also throws on the Necrotic Doom demo to start us off.
Beginning with said demo, these are three tracks that more or less hint at what’s to come with Eroded Corridors Of Unbeing. Crushing riffs with immense amounts of suspense make up everything here. For being in the demo stage, though, this feels surprisingly cleaner than you’d think. That’s not to say it isn’t a head-crushing blast of disgusting force, because it is; I just find it impressive that you can discern every instrument so well. “The Diffluence Of Ruined Graves” makes its impression the strongest. With eight minutes of gradual slowing and spacing out percussion leading into breakneck speeds, you can only imagine the proverbial burn it creates.
Moving onto the splits side, this is actually where things sound a little muddier. There’s a slight inconsistency between the songs since they come from different years and this wasn’t written in the context of an album, but I do find that to give it a little bit of charm. Considering that not a lot of this derives much from their normal sound, that also helps break things up some. “(Slowly) Claimed By Oblivion” is where Spectral Voice started really heavily laying down the dissonant, empty leads that cast an energy of lifelessness. Its jarring jump into the more abrasive “Peeled Veins” may be the best part of this compilation.
The best way to sum up Necrotic Demos is to call it a little look into the band’s progression within the first five years. I suppose that fits any compilation in the same time span, but fitting it into a work that could act as a full-length gives it just a little edge on others. Necessary for fans who want to hear all of their stuff in one place.
Listen: Bandcamp
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