Skeletal Spectre - Voodoo Dawn (2013)

The reason Voodoo Dawn is so fun is because the album sounds like someone picked through a CD rack, took out all those doom/death classics through the 90s that I so much enjoyed, crushed all of their individual aesthetics into one unwholesome whole, and then hired on America's First Lady of The Festering Vanessa Nocera to growl bloody fucking murder over them. The only exception might be that they left out some of those duller, mournful My Dying Bride style progressions and went more for an outright, rocking formation on a larger portion of the material. Having already heard, covered and enjoyed the first two Skeletal Spectre recordings (especially Tomb Coven), I can't say there are many surprises lying in wait through the follow-up, but it'd be impossible for me to envision a world in which I couldn't bang my head and chuck the horns to this.

What separates this Swedish/US collaboration from more directly mirroring its more dreary forefathers is the fact that, in part, it's another nod to the Sunlight studio guitar tone and D-beat driven, rock-fired riff grooves characteristic of groups like Entombed and Dismember at their prime. Tracks like "Shallow Grave" and "Bone Dust" definitely scratch the itch for Clandestine or Indecent & Obscene, but then you've also got this rain-drizzled sheen of sombre melody circa Cemetery (Godless Beauty, Black Vanity) and Paradise Lost (Gothic, Icon) that rescue the compositions from becoming lost amongst the swelling crowd of cult sound- a-likes. What if Wolverine Blues had cultivated more of a Gothic/doom component than a bluesier rock undercurrent? Skeletal Spectre answers that question with loud, crunching, abrasive rhythm guitars that are admittedly quite lively even at their most basest sense of chugging, glazed or alternated with sadder single picked note sequences that confer some added texture to the meatier chords below. It does very often favor one technique to the other, like on "Black Augury Hollow", a pretty pure death & roll crowd pleasure bound to set jaws wrenching and limbs a-flailin', but that's because this is not a band interesting in boring anyone.

And they most certainly do not, with abusive, fuzzed bass lines and more or less the perfect mix of drums, which are as loud as almost anything else on the recording, without smothering the riffs or the more fragile melodies bouncing across the graveyard-scape. The kicks, crashes and snares would all do Solomon Grundy proud, and I admit many of the mid-paced riffs on this album evoked images of the undead villain wreaking havoc on his environs. Occasionally there will be a pretty neat guitar line, like the ascending pattern in the bridge of "Haunted Gallows" which gets a little buried against the remainder of the instruments, but it's audible enough to appreciate and just made me want to pay closer attention to the smaller details, which are legion throughout Voodoo Dawn. As for Nocera, she mixes up a gut-churning guttural with a mid ranged snarl/growl hybrid which is dowsed in enough effects that it consistently crashes around the atmosphere, at times feeling distanced from the more in-your-face bulk of the rhythm guitars, but just as gruesome as any of the other records I've heard her fronting.

The lyrics are pure cult/Gothic horror, which is perhaps no deviation from Tomb Coven or Occult Spawned Premonitions, yet still more novel than if they were to transform into yet another gore/slasher fan-service death metal band. Qualitatively, I'd actually place the record between the first two. Tomb Coven was a wretched, rotting and fresh experience back in 2009, but Voodoo Dawn rocked considerably more than the sophomore. Not the sort of album you'd seek out if interested in an original approach to the nostalgia of the death and doom mediums, but focused more on putting a smile on the faces of classic horror and death metal buffs, which it does. Recommended as a sort of 'uppity, poor man's Hooded Menace', or to anyone who enjoys the output from Nocera's extended Razorback/underground family (Wooden Stake, Decrepitaph, Fester, Loathsome, Howling, and so forth)...or even the rougher, muddier side of the retro-Swedish death metal movement out of Europe over the past decade (Tormented, Mr. Death, Revel in Flesh etc.)

Verdict: Win [7.5/10]

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Skeletal Spectre - Occult Spawned Premonitions (2011)

Skeletal Spectre's 2009 debut Tomb Coven was a bit of a treat, a cult horror infested romp through the annals of traditional Swedish death metal and solid, stumbling doom passages. A spooky, sad space between Entombed and early Tiamat, traced back through the legacy of Black Sabbath. For its followup, the duo decided to enlist and expand to incorporate a vocalist: Vanessa Nocera. You'll likely recognize her as the wife of Billy Nocera, or from her other acts in the extended Razorback family: Scaremaker and Wooden Stake. Her major contribution here is in a stylistic switch-up between the gruff, guttural vocals one would expect to an acidic, unnerving clean style that conjures a psychedelic, ritual doom aesthetic not unlike a Jex Thoth or Blood Ceremony, if slightly less melodic.

Needless to say, it works well within the context of Occult Spawned Premonitions, and helps lend the album an atmosphere redolent of the good old Hammer Horror flicks or other cult films, while not abandoning the riff-heavy death of the debut. Tracks like "Scalped" and "Untimely Tomb" lumber along like undead goliaths, smashing but simple walls of chords that span the slower and mid-paces of the genre, summoning comparisons to peers like Hooded Menace or Decrepitaph. Others, like the catchy "Raw Head & Blood Bones" or the title track, bring the doom rock to the fore with bold and basal guitars that support Vanessa's broader snarling and growling. Another strength of the band, which was present on the debut, is the subtle use of somber melodies that range off against the crush of the central rhythms. Most of the cuts are wrapped up in about 4-5 minutes, with only one exception in the droning, oppressive finale "Domain of the Fleshless One", which manages its bulk with a steady floe of funeral rhythms and a tortured, torn throat.

I didn't find the sophomore to be quite so catchy as its predecessor, few songs so memorable as "Eerie Bones" or "Tomb Coven" itself, but I think it will still have its appeal among the other acts on the Razorback roster. Not necessarily something anyone will take seriously, but then that's the M.O. of so many of Skeletal Spectre's contemporaries: provide a fun filled, effective outlet to celebrate the old school extremity of late 80s and early 90s death, thrash, doom or grind, and dress it in a package of nostalgia for classic horror camp. Nocera's cleaner vocals can grate on the ears in places, and I could have lived with a more powerful mix of drums, which seem to be over burdened by the weight of the guitars, but otherwise it should prove a good time for fans of Hooded Menace, Acid Witch, Wooden Stake, Father Befouled and the entire crew.

Verdict: Win [7/10]

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Skeletal Spectre - Tomb Coven (2009)

Skeletal Spectre are yet another of those old school Swedish retro death metal bands who I have become enamored with. Truly, this is getting a bit old and trendy, another sort of tribute to the greats (Entombed, Dismember, Grave, and so on), but a band like this comes along and everything seems to feel fresh again. And there is simply so much to like...the band is signed to Razorback Records, who have an ear for old school talent that is nigh flawless. The logo is great, the song titles are great, the cover art is cheesy and great, even the names of the fucking band members are cool (Behold the Pentagram: bass and vocals, Sacrifice the Virgin: guitar, Haunting the Beyond: drums). Unlike a few of their peers, there is a slightly greater edge of old doom metal to their sound, you'll hear the Sabbath influence clearly and maybe a little drudgy Celtic Frost.

"The Decapitress" starts things out with a slow, crawling wall of chugging death and doom, and though the riffs seem quite basic and done 100x before, the vocals of Behold the Pentagram help to put it over the top with their Tom G. Warrior-like dirty punch. The sounds this band emits are quite massive, pure Swedish tone cranking out across the rhythm guitars and a bass which sounds like a sludge factory. "Amulet of Impurity" has a big death'n'roll groove to it, as does "Wrath of Corrupta", big punk rhythms inspired by Motorhead. "Burial Grounds" is another bludgeoning creeper, rocking off at the same pace of a corpse freshly risen from the grave. I love the melody in the chorus. "Cursed Ancestry" opens with Behold giving it some Warrior gusto, as the guitars churn out below into a heavy Cathedral trot, and the title track "Tomb Coven" has a giant, sinister groove and necro witchy lyrics. "Eerie Bones" is another morbid, crawling track with some dark, melodic doom breaks.

Skeletal Spectre don't really offer anything new, but what they do know is how to record an album. This is one of the most dark and swollen recordings in recent memory, even if it's done more in fun. The vocals are kickass and the riffs don't even need to be, they just rock out hard and know exactly how to sound. Tomb Coven is a crushing debut and another score for Razorback.

Highlights: Burial Grounds, Cursed Ancestry, Tomb Coven

Verdict: Win [7.75/10]

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