Spektr – ‘Cypher’

Spektr - Cypher ArtworkI’ve often accused black metal of being staid and derivative, content to rest on its laurels:  but, part of the excitement which initially drew me to what I regard as real darkened extremism was the way in which BM artists were prepared to experiment and push their boundaries to their furthest extent, drawing on the deepest, darkest recesses of their souls to produce music that was challenging, both in its originality and its difficulty to absorb…

Over recent years, as I’ve said, many acts have lacked that ability, to recover the sound, the morbid excitement of the darkness illuminated by acts such as Emperor, Nordvargr (a band so darkly ambient in their sound even Satan himself baulks at them playing his aftershows) and Drakh.

Spektr’s sound is dark and dense, mixing electronic ambience with evil-inducing atmospherics which is added to by the absence of vocals – only the occasional sample breaks up the hypnotic, entrancing soundscape – which is based epitomised and summarised in the epic title track: a massive 12-minute long masterpiece of brooding, complicated, dark, ethereal, gothic, industrial magnificence which brings this particular branch of black metal back to its roots… and also hints of a hopeful blossoming to come.

[9.5/10]

Spektr - LogoTrack list

  1. Hermetism
  2. Teratology
  3. The Singularity
  4. Solitude
  5. Antimatter
  6. Solve et Coagula
  7. Cypher
  8. Decorporation
  9. Le Vitriol du Philospophe

‘Cypher’ is out now on Agonia Records.

You can stream the track ‘Teratology’ here:

About Mark Ashby

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