There seems to be so many great new bands around at the moment, every time I open my inbox there seems to be another album from a band that is being touted the ‘next big thing’… what is scary at the moment is how many of the big promises are actually true. The next band is The Spirit, despite being relatively young (they formed in 2015) this band has been generating huge buzz in Scandnavia and one listen to their debut album Sounds From The Vortex and you can certainly see why.
Not wanting to be one of those whingers but I have to admit that when it comes to my death metal I do rather the ‘old stuff’ compared to the ‘new stuff’ and that is the first thing that hits me with The Spirt, these guys sound like old souls trapped in young bodies. Close your eyes while listening to Sounds From The Vortex and you could be forgiven for thinking that you are listening to something from the 1980s or the 1990s… and that is bloody brilliant.
The promise of Sounds From The Vortex is there from the very beginning. The moody and atmospheric opening track, the instrumental ‘Sounds From The Vortex’, draws the audience in and as it builds you get the feeling that you are about to experience something very special with this album. Even that though doesn’t prepare for what you are about to feel when ‘Cosmic Fear’ kicks into life. The old school death metal sound with fantasy elements in the lyrics takes you back to what was playing on the speakers of your favourite metal shop when you were a kid, and straight away you know that The Spirit is the band that you have looking for for years now.
This is a band that sounds like they are a lot older than they actually are. As you listen to ‘Clouds Of Damnation’ you swear this is a band that you have been listening to for twenty years. Again that brilliant fantasy element is there with the lyrics but it is the instrumentals that truly soar. There is an amazing guitar solo in the middle of the track that has be so wishing I had taken up the instrument when I was a younger.
The Spirit’s diversity is on show with ‘Cross The Bridge To Eternity’ as the track opens with a really folky sound but then the tempo is raised and the track turns into true death metal with force. The band also mix the tempo on ‘Illuminate The Night Sky’ and by the time the track hits it final strains the tempo has changed so many times it keeps the audience on their feet and has the feel of a structured, but natural, jam.
There are no weak tracks on Sounds From The Vortex. Every track has it is own identity meaning that that the listener is kept interested throughout and with songs like ‘The Great Mortality’ and ‘Fields Of The Unknown’ being such gems you just know that this is a band that will go from strength-to-strength and become one of the great death metal bands.
With Sounds From The Vortex The Spirit have created a gem of an album. A band that can recapture that old traditional death metal sound is something that we have been waiting for over the years… and now they have arrived… this is a band that you just have to get excited about.
