{"id":12889,"date":"2013-05-27T00:00:15","date_gmt":"2013-05-27T00:00:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/?p=12889"},"modified":"2013-07-11T21:15:09","modified_gmt":"2013-07-11T21:15:09","slug":"album-review-skeletal-spectre-voodoo-dawn","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/album-review-skeletal-spectre-voodoo-dawn\/","title":{"rendered":"SKELETAL SPECTRE – Voodoo Dawn (2013) | Album \/ EP Reviews @ Metal Forces Magazine"},"content":{"rendered":"

SKELETAL SPECTRE
Voodoo Dawn<\/strong><\/span>
\n\"\"
\nPulverised (2013)<\/span>
Rating: 8\/10<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

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Is it just me, or are there a lot of Swedish bands \u2013 or at least Swedish-sounding bands \u2013 around at the moment? The ghoulishly named Skeletal Spectre is a part-Swedish \/ part-American band who have that typical Swedish guitar sound.<\/p>\n

However, this isn\u2019t your rather bog standard display of mediocre death metal obsessed by Entombed. For a start, these noise-mongers are fronted by a female, Vanessa Nocera, whose foul growls are more frightening than a majority of male singers I\u2019ve heard over the years.<\/p>\n

For the most part, Nocera is accompanied by the evil bellows of Behold The Pentagram\u2019s (now that\u2019s a name I\u2019d like to see on a birth certificate!) . This fiendishly named hooded psycho also provides guitar and bass, while drums come courtesy of 2008 (yep, that\u2019s a name!).<\/p>\n

Voodoo Dawn<\/em>, with its primitive cover art, is the trio\u2019s third opus, and the follow-up to 2011\u2019s Occult Spawned Premonitions<\/em>. The sound which Skeletal Spectre creates is a rather engrossing one, combining the occult snarls and harsh structures of black metal with the punchy and earthy dynamics of old school black metal. Combined, and laced with doom metal, this means that Skeletal Spectre make for quite a foreboding experience, especially with the rather haunting yet guttural growls and grunts of American born Nocera, which shift between deathly growls and black metal spits.<\/p>\n

Voodoo Dawn<\/em> is a beast of a nine-tracker that enters the ill-lit room on a typical Swedish chainsaw riff. Nocera\u2019s rasps on the opening quake of the title track bring to mind the esoteric weirdness of Opera IX, although this cacophony is a far more formidable proposition.<\/p>\n

However, Skeletal Spectre are not stuck in a derivative routine. \u2018Altar Of Damballah\u2019 features an absolutely killer black \u2019n\u2019 roll riff, and the frightful throaty vocals sound as if they are echoing forever more around the dank walls of a long neglected well. The drums really make their mark too; pithy and dense, they act as a booming church bell to the already forlorn yet accessible riffage.<\/p>\n

\u2018Serpent Moon\u2019 and \u2018Bone Dust\u2019 are all-out thrashers, again bringing to mind the buzzing glory of old Entombed. But there\u2019s a lot of gothic melody too within those pulverising extremities \u2013 \u2018Shallow Grave\u2019 and \u2018Black Augury Hollow\u2019, with its jabbing drum kick, symbolise the band\u2019s ability to fester at a slower pace.<\/p>\n

But for those of you seeking something even ghoulishly groovier, then I suggest you wade through the swampy buzz of \u2018She-Wolf Of Devil\u2019s River\u2019, which not only features a double vocal attack of varying growls but also a riff that is a total face-ripper. It is without a doubt the album\u2019s beefiest yet most engaging number.<\/p>\n

However, if you prefer your metal faster then why not take a swig of album closer \u2018The Flip-Side Of Satan\u2019. This track will leave you agog with its speed metal spite and Nocera\u2019s epic, yet on this instance, clear vocal, which alongside those skull-cracking guitars adds to the sinister atmosphere of it all.<\/p>\n

This is very much horror metal at its finest, and although very much on a revival trip, Skeletal Spectre are certainly one band who get their deathly message across without sounding contrived. Three albums in and I\u2019m wondering why the rest of the world hasn\u2019t taken note of Skeletal Spectre? Ignore at your peril.<\/p>\n

Neil Arnold<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

SKELETAL SPECTREVoodoo Dawn Pulverised (2013)Rating: 8\/10 Is it just me, or are there a lot of Swedish bands \u2013 or at least Swedish-sounding bands \u2013 around at the moment? The ghoulishly named Skeletal Spectre is a part-Swedish \/ part-American band who have that typical Swedish guitar sound. However, this isn\u2019t your rather bog standard display […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[24,632],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12889","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-album-ep-reviews","category-skeletal-spectre"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12889","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12889"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12889\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12898,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12889\/revisions\/12898"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12889"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12889"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12889"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}