Album Review: Spectral – Arctic Sunrise (Boersma Records)

Founded in 1995, Spectral have carved out a career built around playing hard & fast heavy metal music. They have risen through the ranks particularly within the German underground scene. Arctic Sunrise is the bands first new album since 2012 & will be released on January 13th via Boersma Records.

Mixing thrash & death metal (with a small sprinkling of power metal) may not be an original idea within the heavy metal world but when the end result is such a stonkingly good piece of work, does it really matter?

This 9 track beat-laden, hook filled album from Spectral is a joy to listen too. From the moment the title track, Arctic Sunrise explodes out of the blocks to the final melodic stylings of Fuck Off and Die (Metal is Forever), this album doesn’t dip in quality throughout.

Tracks like Invaders & In Battle with Fire and Steel are two songs that particularly stand out. The former a hard-hitting tune but with some killer riffs that mark it out significantly while the latter embraces the more power metal side of the band resulting in a catchy, hook-driven song.

Arctic Sunrise is an exciting record with only one minor drawback, some of the vocals. Not that they are bad, far from it! It’s just that we’ve heard it all before, it’s solid as hell & fits the music perfectly but it’s not offering much in the way of excitement. A minor complaint considering just how much of this record excels & it’s genuinely disappointing when it comes to a close.

The solo at the end of Path of the Damned is to die for.

Overall Track Listing:

1. Intro
2. Arctic Sunrise
3. Evil Takes Control
4. Invaders
5. Nuclear Assault
6. In Battle With Fire and Steel
7. Path of the Damned
8. Vengeance in Blood
9. Fuck Off and Die (Metal is Forever)

We’d like to thank Spectral & Against PR for providing us with a copy of the album for this review. You can find out more about the band over on their Facebook page, over on Twitter, on YouTube.