Saturday, September 01, 2018

Regal Mysticism...

SpaceMetal - Shroud (2018)


Making their debut in 2015 with a self-titled album, SpaceMetal have now returned with their sophomore LP, and the near-hour of material it packs shows the band angling for a blend of flavors both old and new, coming through in a batch of doom-brushed heavy metal. Big work-horse riffs are plentiful, the vocals take time to savor the words being sung, and the breaks and switch-backs are rolled in and out with cool smoothness. The guitar solos are probably where the group's Louisianan standing comes through the clearest, with a soulful strain that could easily be chalked in as delta blues blended with Dio-era Sabbath (“Forest of Faith” and “The Wheel” being a back-to-back pair that really bring out that flavor).
Lyrically, things are kind of all over the place, but in a pleasing way, with nature, revenge, replacement, lady-craving, existential spookiness, future landscapes, and van-art wizards are all in play, and the singing is balanced out by tasty extended dips into instrumental rocking. The music rarely gets full-on heavy, but when it's leveraged (e.g., the crunchy weight of the main riff in “New Blood”), it comes off very well, and as something done to benefit the song, instead of just being there for the sake of heavy. In the end, Shroud has a lot going on, and the musicians behind it deserve recognition for putting together such a well-rounded album, and for successfully channeling the sounds of yesteryear while dodging flat imitation or too-accurate flab. Grab yourself a copy once it drops on September 15th, should full-bodied heavy metal be to your tastes, and hear for yourself the SpaceMetal style.
~ Gabriel

For Fans Of; Magic Circle, Pilgrim, Saint Vitus, Valkyrie, Witchcraft




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