ALBUM REVIEW: Eroded Corridors of Unbeing – Spectral Voice

Information is pretty thin on the ground for Colorado based death doom four-piece SPECTRAL VOICE, save for the fact the the individual members have worked together in numerous other acts and for the last five years have exercised (or maybe they should be exorcised) the grimmer deathly interests in SPECTRAL VOICE. After several demos and a couple of split releases, they have finally unleashed their debut full length album, Eroded Corridors of Unbeing.

Right from the very first note of opener Threshold Beyond the band thrive on building a haunting ambience. A brooding riff with vocalist and drummer E Wendler contributing some intense guttural growls that have a slight echo creating the effect that the band are holed up in a cave somewhere. In a pattern that flows through each of the tracks on this release, the band take many different twist and turn through each of the five epic episodes on the album, enough to spark the interest of the enthusiast of all things heavy and extreme. Pace and mood changes flow together seamlessly as the band build from track to track an impressive and uneasy collection of music.

As the album progresses, each of the tracks are allowed to flourish and develop from a slow bludgeoning doom trope, through some PARADISE LOST style clean guitar work right through to some old school AUTOPSY style death metal with a bit of punk edge coming through, although they still manage to keep that eerie atmosphere present throughout. There are long passages where there are no vocals and the band use this time to slow things down and build for the next wave of filth to come along. From the five minute Lurking Gloom to the near quarter our long Visions Of Psychic Dismemberment, the band utilise each of these different styles but bring them together in very different ways.

Eroded Corridors of Unbeing is an immersive album where the forty-minute running time flies by because each of the tracks manage to fit in so much. The eerie atmosphere, added to the switches in mood draw you in right from the start and don’t let go until the album has slowly faded out and spat you out on the other side of it. One of the most expansive and interesting albums of the year, and one that takes influences from the whole breadth of extreme metal to produce something that is at the same time familiar yet different, and both haunting and brutal in equal parts.

Rating: 9/10

Eroded Corridors of Unbeing is out now via Dark Descent Records.

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