Spectral Darkwave
Last First Contact

Last First Contact is the debut album from British band Spectral Darkwave, their first and only debut perhaps? That question has to come up considering the title, and we are left thinking about whether or not this is the first and only contact we will get from this trio. The cover art looks sort of exciting but also a tad worrying as albums looking like this are often pretty boring and made in a moist basement somewhere on the Polish countryside. There are a few things said about things in the press release but to me the most interesting is La La Land Studio, London and “a hi-def tour of human horror in sonic Technicolor” that is supposed to describe how the album sounds. I could also add “recorded over the course of two years using the best home equipment the band could get, and vocals were recorded in La La Land Studio in London under the watchful eye of engineer Fred Lagergren”.

Dark adventures await… or so they say.

Doom/Death metal with a touch of symphonics and grunty vocals, it is quite melodic and I would describe it as a little bit electric. Not your everyday run of the mill stuff, which is good. But the production is maybe less good, it is pretty good but not really amongst the high-end productions that are becoming ever more common nowadays. One might also suggest that the band should write a little bit more varied material in terms of their songs, as the ten tracks tend to feel a little bit stagnant when playing them through, especially if you try it more than once. This despite the album’s playing time of just over 40 minutes, which is not a particularly long time in terms of minute but feel is not judged by technicalities like minutes and those things.

I wasn’t expecting this album to be particularly interesting from the look of it but it was a pleasant surprise in the fresh melodic feel of it. I like it quite a bit; it has a great feel to it. But there are a few things holding it back, the vocals for one – they are a bit stale and do not really help the songs rise towards the top. The lack of variation is the other little thing that works against this album. I think that this album don’t quite live up to its full potential but that it will still appeal to fans of this kind of music – it is the wider audiences that might have a problem taking it in considering that there are better offerings of this kind of music out there. Good thing is that it at least isn’t another stereotypical album and that the band shows that they have some great ideas and with some more dynamics and a little better production I think that they can create wonders in the future – if they want to make some more contact that is.

I find it difficult to pick out a favourite track on this album but the third one called The Occident is pretty good but the tracks are pretty evenly match and none of them can be called a real standout track. The album feels a little too one-dimensional to send out some evil spectral darkwaves through your speakers, but it is a decent album but one that doesn’t quite reach its potential. However, the really good thing about it is that at least it doesn’t sound like the majority of uninteresting stuff that fills my mailbox these days.

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