Spellcraft - Yersinia Pestis
When I first saw the cover art for this album, I didn’t know what to think about Spellcraft. The cover was kind of generic (a demon standing on some snakes and the usual unreadable band logo), so I kind of assumed that the band was too. I like it when I’m proven wrong and Spellcraft proved me wrong. This isn’t generic Black Metal at all. The first track had a Graveland vibe to it due to the Slavic Folk influence in the guitar playing, but subsequent songs were more straight-forward melodic Black Metal with some interesting atmospheric elements. Of course, when you consider that this band is from Spain, it kind of makes sense that they wouldn’t have a strong Slavic Folk influence. I would have been surprised if they did, though. Then again, I once saw a band that essentially played NSBM (their albums had swastikas all over them and their T-shirts had SS soldiers gassing Jews), but the band had members that were clearly Mexican. Slavic Black Metal from Spain wouldn’t have been that much of a stretch in comparison. When it comes to atmospheric elements, most bands lay on the keyboards a-la Dimmu Borgir. Spellcraft doesn’t use much keyboard on this album at all. Instead, the atmosphere comes from the guitars and the inclusion of acoustic interludes, and also incorporating acoustic guitar into the songs. They also use clean vocals and weird guitar harmonics. Where Spellcraft falters (I wouldn’t call it “failure”) is when they kick up the speed. When they play fast, they ruin the atmosphere and the drumming tends to overpower the guitars. The issues with the drumming overwhelming the guitars comes from the usual sources: the snare and the bass drum. The snare is overly loud and the bass drum sounds like a light switch. When Spellcraft plays in the lower speed range (slow to mid-paced), the snare doesn’t get in the way. When they kick up the speed, the drummer starts riding the snare like it was the only drum in his entire kit, and working the light switch bass drum like a hyperactive kid hopped up on a Costco bucket of sour gummy worms. This is mostly a production issue and could be fixed by a competent studio engineer. Spellcraft is a band to look out for. If they can get their production issues worked out, their next album will be great.
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