Arson Cafe: Spectral Lore

Monday, May 05, 2014

Spectral Lore - III (2014)

Spectral Lore is rightly of the best current projects in Greece, having a nearly decade-long, quiet and remote path with more than notable releases to date. This project of Ayloss is moving in strong atmospheric waves that inspires dreaming and thinking, making his music a fairytale, even spiritualistic. III is the fourth full album of Spectral Lore and approaching close to a half hour in length, divided into two chapters , making it as the longest album so far .

The skills and the talent of Ayloss can be appreciated if one has heard older material of the band, as well as if one is really in the style of bands like the Swiss Darkspace. With this new record, new principles are based in atmospheric black metal, coming from the combination of musical elements executed naturally and accurately, provoking all the feelings of the listener in it's duration. Where other bands tend to get tiring with one-hour releases, Spectral Lore show the comfort they have with their lengthy compositions and leave III to flow perfectly.

The disc begins with an intense riff in the introduction of "Omphalos", which transmits the necessary "blackness" from the first seconds. However, the songs here often change style, going into more epic or rejuvenating post-black lines, as in parts of "The Cold March To Eternal Bright" and "A Rider In The Lands Of An Infinite Dreamscape". The two instrumental tracks they also have their own personality, with the first "Drifting Through Moss and Ancient Stone", having classical acoustic guitar parts and even reminding of acoustic rock at the beginning, while the outro "Cosmic Significance" being a very beautiful piece of minimalistic ambient.

The variety in the vocals on each track , which draw influences from many different genres. There is a balance between screams, growling and measured clean vocals, offering the rest of the orchestration more strength and morale. The ambient and synth parts of the album play an important role in the atmosphere of the album, having a medieval connotation in some moments. The unique sound of Spectral Lore expands the horizons of the entire genre and the aural experience of III as a whole, is certainly worthy of praise . This album is innovative, interesting and staggering when it needs to be, undoubtedly the best offer so far.

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