I always say the devil is on the details. The devil and Metal music are really a huge match, if you know what I mean. It’s not only a rhetoric by the band, there is something evil about Metal music. At least, Metal music the most unearthly kind of music ever. There is some malice in its pure sense. Evil is always ready for a fight. So is a Metal band. That’s why Metal albums are made of details. Lots of them. That’s one of the many reasons I always listen to an album twice or more before being able to write anything about it. It’s not possible to get all the the details for the first time. At first, “Arkanum,” the full-length of Spit on Your Grave, sounded pretty standard. Album welcomer “The Infection” is something like having a bee inside your ears with all the fuzz and noise coming from the speakers. Pretty much the kind of album warmer many bands wish to open their albums. So far, so good. No news. No wonder. The thing is that little by little the fan will get what Spit on Your Grave are made of. First of all their name. A kind of perfect choice for a Death Metal band. Ok, then comes “Vigilia,” the third track of the album with its Hardcore spirit mixed with the lyrics in Spanish which makes the song sound a little more aggressive. Immediatelly, it came to my mind the petard from Brujeria “Matando Güeros.” Just for starters. Then cames “Into the Devil’s Realm,” the track that makes us think we got it wrong or something happened with the player because its spirit is completely different from everything heard so far. It sounds as if it is another band. The symphonic chorus and chants intertwined here and there in the song make all the difference. And, then, there is the grand finale “The March of the Innocents” with some bass lines that really stand out from the crowd. The stops the band does in the middle of the song are really something each Progressive Death Metal band should try.
Ok, it’s not that I forgot the other tracks. Not really. The problem is when compared to the ones I aforementioned they got a little too much terranean. Take “Broken Hourglass,” for instance, a track that could be in any decent Melodic Death Metal album. It’s okay when compared with the others. That’s the problem of writing to o many good songs for an album.
Yeah, that’s right, “Arkanum” will blow your mind.
Spit on Your Grave “Arkanum” was released on April 12th.
Track Listing:
- The Infection
- The Heretic
- Vigilia
- Into the Devil’s Realm
- Dark Lullaby
- Broken Hourglass
- Self Sacrifice
- The March of the Innocents
Watch official music video here:
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