Spire : "Entropy"

This black...ish band from Australia brings the ambiance of darkness with a lush sound that surprised the hell out of me, as it lulled me into it's misty water. Like fog it rolls in. By the time we get to the second song there is a very murky chorus of low chanted vocals that capture a Tombs like feel. The kind of darkness being churned out here will appeal to fans of earlier Atriarch. This crawls along a hazy line where doom meets black metal. The vocals are mainly screamed in anguish. The song throbs more than it tries to inspire any head banging. The pace does pick up, but one thing I like about this album is how it doesn't rely on blast beats. The third song is just a long droning interlude. So for the purpose of scoring this review won't be counted as a song.

The go into more traditional black metal on "Void". When it slows into a more deliberate throb with more articulated harsh vocals and a more sung chant, the song regains my attention. It other wises numbed me into a trance becoming background music. They even have a a song that is under three minutes which is unheard of for a black metal band these days. Sure they close with a 14 minute song, but at least I know they are not totally dependent on lulling me into a trance. The title track does take it's time building into the actual song. There is a very despairing drift into the shadowy pound.It's a very gradual burn into this hellish landscape painted in grim sonic textures. .The roars are allowed to echo into the backdrop.It is an impressive and emotive outpouring, but not sculpted into anything really resembling an actual song.

I'll give this album an 8.5. It's the nature of the beast for  what they are doing to focus more on the feeling they are creating rather than pressing these into songs. While the rule around here is "cool riffs alone do not make a good song" these guys are able to side step the conventional bounds of songwriting by pulling you into how these songs feel and it goes beyond riffing into sonic textures that wrap you in. Not sure if that makes sense to you, so give this album a listen at the link below.

This album is being released by Iron Bone Head on August 19th.