Spirit Possession are a black metal band from the US and this is their third album.
Brought to us by a member of Black Curse/Ulthar, Cathedral Speech contains 43 minutes of engaging blackened mayhem. Spirit Possession are not your average black metal band, so get ready to inject something notable into your listening habits.
This is black metal that exists somewhere between blackthrash, blackened heavy metal, and first wave black metal. Throw in a bit of second wave vitriol and an influence from 70s progressive rock, and you have a recipe for Spirit Possession’s idiosyncratic music.
The final ingredient listed above – classic prog rock – may initially sound out of place, but it flavours much of Cathedral Speech in different ways. It allows Spirit Possession to have a wider repertoire than many other ostensibly similar bands. This manifests as creative additions to the red-blooded black metal heart of the record, making for music that’s well-rounded and effective. These enrichments are expressive augmentations that are mostly subtle, (such as providing texture to a section’s attack, or extra depth and colour to a lead or solo), but occasionally blatant, (such as an introspective break, or a flagrant prog workout). Either way, it simply adds power to the band’s core blackened style.
The riffs are frenetic and sharp. The vocals pierce with impunity, and the drums attack with vigorous glee. Within this, these instruments and performances are nuanced and expressive. The songwriting takes advantage of the prog accents and heavy metal knowhow, but even without these the band know how to bring the chaos with charismatic personality. Cathedral Speech‘s worldbuilding is top-tier.
Spirit Possession have managed to do something that’s very hard to do – they have taken a well-worn style and done something interesting with it. Cathedral Speech is a record that builds on its central components in remarkable ways, leading to a record that offers an array of darkly dazzling depths for the listener to explore.
Cathedral Speech fuses its different elements into a whole that’s compelling, enjoyable, and moreish. The songs have greater depth of substance than you might think, revealing more and more of themselves over time. Spirit Possession’s new album is impressively wrought through and through.
Very highly recommended.
