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This guest review comes courtesy of Brihadeesh, who writes and publishes over at Peregrinator Reviews. Check out their excellent and ever-expanding back-catalog of reviews, and give them a follow over on Bluesky!
Written by: Brihadeesh
An oil painting of two knights clad in dark steel armour, one with a mallet and dagger and the other with a broadsword, effortlessly fighting off a horde of cross bearing crusaders is a hell of a powerful image when it comes to a black metal album cover. And this album really reprises this image through the music. Antifascist as fuck, and releasing via explicitly the left-leaning Realm & Ritual, no less, this is easily one of the best albums I've played this year. I recently came across a new band I thought I would enjoy but then a quick glance at their Wikipedia page showed me some pretty nasty things about their frontman—Jon Nödtveidt—and it was about how he was involved in a misanthropic cult of sorts and was arrested in and convicted of the murder of a homosexual man. The band was one of the "pioneers" of the Swedish melodic black metal scene. Like I discussed in my last piece on the new Wild Beyond EP, black metal in recent years has gone through several changes and the most notable of them being that it has been reclaimed and reinvented as Red and Anarchist Black Metal (RABM). People like Jon here are not revered and instead, a left-leaning or otherwise anarchist philosophy is embraced in the music that is made. Lyrics are often anthemic and call for rebellion against capitalist oppressors, often embellished with samples of powerful speeches and news reports of violence against the marginalised. What's even more powerful is that queer and otherwise oppressed people are in the forefront of these bands, and nothing makes me happier as a neuroqueer person than to see fellow queer people ripping out blastbeats and shredding some of the sickest riffs in town.
Enter Spectral Decay, whose 2023 demo, Kaleidoscope of Evil, set the stage for a style of black metal that is vicious, unrelenting and punk to the core. Their follow up LP, Pleading for Eternal Night, had that raw, under-processed and gnarly surface that is typical of the DIY, punk scene, expressly unique to the underground black metal sound, you might have been familiar with from Mayhem's debut album. This new album sees Rey Tigre Profano's drums sounding virtually crystalline. Blast-beats as clear as day and there is a kick sound that haunts you for several days after listening to it. Guitars fare no worse, they're still raw but they've ever so slightly upped the production and so Helminth's and Araña Cansada's guitars play all their ever so sad, angry riffs brutally spitting rage.
I mentioned the Swedish melodic black metal scene by no accident because the songs starting with Wretched Fog have this melodic melancholic infusion that is not very dissimilar to that of bands like Dawn and Vinterland from that era of black metal. There is that delirious furor to the songs that is painted out by the combination of the guitars, drums and synths (performed by the vocalist: Rosin). The song that very likely reached out to me the most deeply was "Mortal Flesh" which springs off the rails with a furiously crust-laden deathy riff but it is really the combination of the eerie synth and the arpeggiated guitar riff in the chorus that really spoke to me. Well, that and the little section towards the end where you can really hear the hunk-some bass peek out in the mix. There is a combination of unease, dread and fear in the wall of sound that hits you with especially Rosin's vocals that carries on through "Corrupted Tongue" too with all it's evil sounding 5th note riffs and Rosin's pained shrieks towards the end. Pay close attention to the lyrics as well, if you can make sense of the screams. They are definitely worth going through if you're especially fond of dystopian poetry. Helminth and Rosin have gone above and beyond with them and they really show what Wrath they're talking about in the title. "Marquart Drive" is the song that really relives the sound of Dawn on Slaughtersun, an album I've grown to be especially fond of amongst recent listens. On further consideration, I perhaps even enjoyed the not-so-subtle melancholic melodic sections on this track more than "Mortal Flesh." You must forgive, me it's hard to choose when the songs are all so well written and cohesive to their narrative of rightful rebellious rage and sorrow. It is in stark contrast to the aggressive punkiness and what could have even sounded incredible with the typical pingy snare of "Hangwitch." The steady rhythms and groove make you sway sickeningly stank faced, with the loud distorted bass peeking out every so often in the verses and bridges. It was this very song that caught my attention when Realm & Ritual had posted it on Instagram some weeks back and that which made me want to write about it. In all, this is the quintessential RABM album and one of the most enjoyable melting pot of various genres that aren't always associated with black metal. It is no surprise that everyone involved with the project are active members of the DIY and punk scenes in Albuquerque. With songs about rage, which very distinctly comes through in the way the songs are performed and recorded, and lyrical themes around corruption, retribution and class struggle, this is the RABM album you should listen to if you're sceptical about something even as fatuous as black metal having riffs. Spectral Decay - Left Hand Wrath was released 24th October 2025. Find it via the artist's Bandcamp. Tapes will be available to order from Realm & Ritual.
Thanks to Brihadeesh for this fantastic guest review! If you'd like to read this very same review at Peregrinator, you can do so here!
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