A teeny weeny little four track EP to review for our discerning audience now. It looks like the law compelling all Finnish men aged 18-50 to record at least one metal album has again been enforced, as Spiritual Holocaust come from the land of hard drinking and dark nights. While this is a small release, it is perfectly formed.
Spiritual Holocaust come from Death Metal city, but by way of the charming hamlets dissonance and individuality. With plemty of skewed, angular sounding riffing and a variety of tempos, including incredibly atmospheric slower sections, this is an EP that owes as much to oddities like Runemagick as it does to Morbid Angel. The guitar riffing, in particular, has an unusual approach, being as likely to be built from overlapping wave like sounds that don't seem to come from the usual places metal riffs are wrought from as they are from more typical chugging palm muted actions. In fact, this is a tasty treat for those of us who like our music to have a dark atmosphere. This is in fact a massively atmospheric piece of work – the tasty guitar solos being completely perfect as perversely melodic counterpoints to the off kilter riffing and themes. Vocally, Tomi produces a bleakly emotional narrative to the music, his singing a hoarse bellow that never the less manages to at times bring a sense of occult dread to proceedings.
With this being a short EP, if there is any fault to be found, it's in the production, which is at times a little thin and sparse on the bass. There is an upside to this, in that it lends the guitar sound an extra fragility and slightly icy quality, particularly in the more dissonant sections. All in all, a really engaging EP, and a full album should be something to really look forward to.
http://www.myspace.com/spiritualholocaustfin
