Review by Michael on August 1, 2024.

Hell, yeah!! With Songs Of Blood And Mire Canadian black metal shooting stars Spectral Wound are back and this time even more convincing and with more fury and vitriolic force than on its predecessor A Diabolic Thirst (cheers!!). Kicking off with some casual Celtic Frost vibes the opener 'Fevers And Suffering' soon turns into a nightmarish and feverish (sorry for that pun) trip that is obviously a mixture of pretty raw old-school black metal and some more death metal influences here and there.

The slight groovy Celtic Frost influences continue but not in all the songs so the whole thing has turned out into a highly diverse album. For instance, the opening riff in 'Less And Less Human, O Savage Spirit' (what a solemn title) lets you expect that this one will become a cool black n´ roll thing but there you got totally wrong. After a few seconds of the party, it is already over again and all the guests are puking and writing in satanic pain. Though there are sometimes more catchy elements to find, this is nasty harsh back metal with many influences from Northern Europe (especially from Finland). Closing with 'Twelve Moons In Hell' (hell, yeah!!) you might get which band was obviously one of the major influences, namely Immortal. At least within the first seconds which sound strikingly like “Battles Of The North” but then again…Finnish. What I really like is that they haven´t put a lame one at the end of the album but one with brute force and striking energy. Another highly diverse song is 'Aristocratic Suicidal Black Metal'. Again, starting with some crunchy and catchy riffing this is leading in the wrong direction first but with the incipient hateful and frosty vocals this turns out to be another superb (aristocratic) black metal track. But if you take care of the guitars, you can find some death metal influences here and there which give the track an even more brutal touch. And the twin guitars in the middle of the song are slightly influenced by some NWoBHM bands, I´d dare to say. Another big surprise (at least for my almost deaf ears) is that they incorporated some acoustic guitar tunes in 'The Horn Marauding'. Still, their harsh black metal is in the foreground but this one has many very accessible parts, too, and is another highly diverse track. Of course, this isn´t any shitty semi- or full-ballad with any wimpy parts, nor this still is ass-kicking black metal from the deepest pits of hell, but it´s also another nice facet in the musical works of the band.

To sum it all up a little bit, Songs Of Blood And Mire is another really strong release by the Canadians who psychically live in Northern Europe. Of course, they don´t leave their traditional path but sometimes they can surprise you with one or another element that you might have not expected from them. Together with the again very aesthetically designed artwork (and being slightly mysterious, as usual) and the powerful production they have created a very appealing fourth full-length album, and in my humble opinion this might be their best work so far. Well done, this is probably one of the black metal highlights in 2024.

Rating: 9 out of 10