Spectral Darkwave play a bombastic, unique, riff-driven style of blackened industrial death-doom, garnished with spacey atmospherics and guttural vocals. Following up 2015s dark and dramatic debut album, sophomore “At Outer Dark” sees the London (Earth) based trio evolve their sound into further esoteric and extravagant realms.
There’s an underpinning Lovecraftian-steampunk vibe peppering the album, with the lyrical matter ranging from surreal fantasy to science fiction, travelling back and forth through time. Whilst several tracks notably celebrate Cthulhu, “The March Of SSes” appears to be an ode to warmongering elephants, and even includes elephant noises on the track itself. “The Founding Of Man” offers a commentary on how the human race is simultaneously at its most destructive when it’s at its most inventive, and “A Season Of Abyssal Screams” takes a cultural detour into Mayan sacrifice.
The album closing title track leads with a Sabbath-esque plodding riff supported by spacey synths, apparently bringing all of the subject matter explored throughout the rest of the album together. It tells of how these self-proclaimed “space pirates” detect Lord Cthulhu entering the galaxy and the consequences of their plan to fly and meet him. Batshit crazy for sure, but certainly no sillier than the ideas proffered by most organised religions.
“At Outer Dark” ultimately doesn’t bring anything new to the party, rather it successfully blends established genres together and avoids clumsy juxtaposition. Whilst extravagant and esoteric in places, it doesn’t stray over the line into wackiness (well, aside from the elephants on guest vocals) or self-indulgence. Competent and imaginative stuff that likely has to be experienced live to fully appreciate.
(7/10 Doogz)
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