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Solid direction hindered by a muffled audio quality.-
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| Sacrilegious Impalement: Exalted Spectres |
Black Metal
Hammer of Hate Records
May 31st, 2011
- Intro - 2:27
- Blessed to Resist - 3:38
- Enter Godhood - 4:09
- Wolves of the Black Moon - 5:04
- The Woods in a Solitary Soul - 5:16
- At the Altar Afore Eternity - 5:42
- Aletheia - 4:00
- Omnipotens Aeterne - 4:42
- Grand Funeral Convoy - 5:43
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| Review Information |
Release length: 40:41
Review posted on April 24th, 2011
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| | Overall Score: 8.5/10 |
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| Discography |
Discography covers all information available up to day of review and is updated if future albums are reviewed. |
| Full-Length(s): |
Cultus Nex (2009) • Exalted Spectres (2011)
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| EP(s): |
Sacrilegious Impalement (2007) • World in Ashes (2008)
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| Demo(s): |
Promo (2006)
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| Review |
It's been about a year and a half since Sacrilegious Impalement's debut full-length Cultus Nex hit store shelves. The rather mediocre-sounding Black Metal effort was met with mixed opinions, and it was clear that the group still needed to do some growing or maturing for their next release. For 2011, the band follows up that full-length debut with their second studio effort, Exalted Spectres. Has the band worked on their sound a little more and become a stronger act over this time?
The first track on the album, despite the fact that it's an "Intro" song, slowly builds, and then goes into a rather generic Black Metal song that doesn't go anywhere whatsoever, though it does get the listener a little excited given the building sensation that it gives off, almost like an atmosphere of preparing to go to war with it's march-like music, but the song seems to cut off at the end and, honestly, could have been milked into a genuine track had the band sat down and worked on it. This is a huge disappointment, as this "Intro" had serious potential. "Blessed to Resist", however, starts off on rocky ground, having a very odd clean sung passages in another language, more then like of the band's native tongue in Finland, coming off a bit like a chanting, but it just sounds odd of place and more like a Native American song giving praise to one of their gods or any spirit they might find important enough to sing to. When the song kicks in though, all hell pretty much breaks loose, and the music comes off more like something you'd expect from one of today's more well excepted bands mixed the fury, speed, and blast beat concepts of the more intense "third wave" Black Metal acts. The song is furious and aggressive right from the start, coming off with a razor-like edge and speed that cuts away at the listener from the start and refuses to stop until the song has had it's fill, leading to a fantastic start for Exalted Spectres.
That general aggression does seem to fade, though it never goes away. There are moments where the music picks up and becomes a little more intense or intimidating, which is a general atmosphere to the album, but at times it does become a little more haunting thanks to some of the guitar work you can hear in the background. Shades of bands like Emperor and their atmospheric traits can be found littered thorugh the recording at times, and it really pushes this album to greater levels. "Wolves of the Black Moon", for example, utilizes subtle background melodies in the guitar to weave a very haunting atmosphere to the track, while the music is still belted out in an intense fasgion that feels sharp yet undeniably heavy. Even the vocals and the nice range applied of higher pitched vocals that feels traditional and a little more aggression through shouting, as if the vocalist is grabbing you by the throat and screaming right in your face with the most sinister of voices possible. There's also "The Woods in a Solitary soul" which takes the atmospheric aspect of the recording a bit further with sound effects of wind whistling by for a two minute long introduction with whispered words here and there to give off a struggling sensation to the music, though the slower paced guitars play a rhythm that feels eerie and very cold. The music does pick up and hammer away at the listener at key times, though always reverting back to that slower pace. At first it feels a bit like overkill, but once you go through the song, your opinion does change once you happen to hear the whole song and come to grips with how the band had laid it all out to make it work.
Exalted Spectres can also take on a slightly more epic sound with the second generation style of compositions. "Omnipotens Aeterne" feels that way with some of the building up in the music that the band does throuhout the recording. The music seems to go at a slower pace, but thanks to the epic vibe it seems like it's going by faster, and even has a general atmosphere as if the band is paying homage or showing their respect to some kind of deity through it all. The same can be said with "Grand Funeral Convoy" which goes at a much slower, depressing pace to embrace the lyrical concept of Death, taking on more of something one might expect from a later Bathory or keyboardless Burzum release. The only issue with these tracks that makes them a little less then superb, as well as with the rest of the recording, is the final quality. The overall volume of the music is much lower then it probably should be. The instruments themselves ultimately feel a little more restrained, and the vocals seem to lack a stronger bite that, when you listen to the release, you can tell definitely should be there, leaving everything to sound a little muffled, but not enough to dramatically hurt the release. You could argue it's that the band is trying to bring in a raw sound to the recording again, but that's not what it sounds like, coming off like something the producer did to the levels when recording instead of just being the limitations of funding and technology available.
While Exalted Spectres is a huge step in the right direction for the band, it does have it's faults with the overall quality and some moments that just don't feel right. Musically, the band exxplores various levels in the Black Metal style, branching out to give an album with plenty of variety that holds a fluid sound from one song to the next. While the furious and angry material that starts off the album is definitely the higher points of the album, the haunting and epic material here is still stirring, though held back a bit by the lower volume and quality issues. It's also depressing that the band utilized such great music for "Intro" instead of expanding on it to make it a regular song for this release, though it does the job in getting the listener ready for what's to come. Overall it's a great follow-up album from Sacrilegious Impalement, and definitely worth giving a listen, especially since the material has enough power behind it to find you coming back for some extra spins later on after that initial first runthrough with it.
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Digital review copy of this release provided by:
Hammer of Hate Records.
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