SPERE – Eight – Led to the Beam

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7.5

• Bands:
  HOPES
• Duration: 00:41:33
• Available from: 06/12/2024
• Label:

• Northern Silence Prod.

Streaming not yet available

There is an artist who lives in the heart of the German blacksters Spere, and that artist goes by the name of Ace Börje Thomas Forsberg, aka Quorthon, unforgettable leader of the equally unforgettable Bathory; a love that the Teutonic duo does nothing to hide. From the first notes of this “Eight-Led To The Beam”, their long-distance debut after the group was founded in 2023, it is clear what impact albums like “Blood Fire Death”, “Hammerheart” and Twilight Of The Gods” on the imagination of Niklas (guitar and vocals, former member of Horn) and Tempestas (drums, former member of Halpas).
The more modern and refined approach to the material – which cannot fail to refer to the work of other acts clearly influenced by the epic-Viking period of the brilliant Swedish composer such as Primordial or Draugnim, but also the less progressive Enslaved and the more epic Belenos – does not draw, in fact, deceptively.
From the initial “Kevalier” to the final “Krafter” the whole album, excellently produced by Torsten Baus at Sculpt Sound Studios, exudes Spere's love for the Bathorian lesson, with the band however not giving up on inserting its own peculiar elements, starting from the desire to tackle the subject in a certainly not usual two-person formation in which the use of the bass (as well as that of any other instrument, with the exception of the guitar and the drums) is not not even foreseen at the time of registration.
The intention of Niklas and Tempestas is, in fact, to reproduce their compositions relying solely on their own strength, building further layers of guitar through effects and sound processing through both guitar and bass amplifiers: the result is a very rich and multifaceted sound, made up of expertly crafted guitar riffs excellently supported by drumming as effective as it is imaginative, in which the aforementioned absence of the bass is not felt in the slightest.
It appears evident from the first minutes of the album that Spere's objective is not in the slightest to change the cards on the table of a genre that has already defined its stylistic foundations for some time, focusing decisively on the evocation of dense atmospheres, arcane and Teutonically romantic (in the nineteenth-century sense of the term) through extremely effective songs, often set to rocky mid-tempos, but without disdaining more urgent moments, among which the already mentioned opener “Kevalier”, but also the more pressing “Kombatant” and the martial and conclusive “Krafter”.
The concept in eight acts (plus two intros) architected by the Spere, concerning the disappearance of the ancient world reinterpreted in their own way, only adds charm to a record that will not fail to send more than a shiver down the spine of fans of the genre, but it could also find admirers among all the fans of the most epic and evocative metal who are not necessarily lovers of extreme sounds, thanks also to a vocal approach which, even in the most ferocious moments, never deviates from a decidedly intelligible growl, then reaching heights of absolute epicness in the clean, stentorian and proud moments as the genre commands.
A work created with extreme competence and professionalism, as well as love for the subject matter, which perhaps lacks the spark to stand out definitively in a genre in which the masterpieces have now risen to the status of legend in the collective memory of aficionados, but absolutely highly enjoyable, as well as encouragement for possible very interesting future developments.