SPELL — Opulent Decay (review)

Album · 2020 · Heavy Metal

4/5 · 2020-06-17
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Sometimes I'll open YouTube and go over to Banger TV to see what's happening over there. I did this back in April and watched a video reviewing the third album by Spell, which was just released that month.

I had never heard of Spell before. They previously went by the name of Stryker, whom I had never heard of before either, but changed their name so as not to be confused with Striker. I had never heard of them either.

The video review began with a clip from their latest video: a song on the new album, "Opulent Decay" called "Dawn Wanderer". The funny thing was that as soon as the vocals came in, I thought, "I know that song!" I new exactly what notes were coming next and began humming along, trying to remember where and when I had heard that song before. The music was simple and melodic. There was something about it that reminded me of Depeche Mode or some similar band from the early eighties, only played on guitars instead of keyboards. The guitar solo was simple and melodic, the song structure also simple. The melody was really easy to get into. I would not have thought to call this band metal based on this one song, but it was really infectious. I ordered the album.

I don't know Spell's history well at all. This is their third album and apparently this is the style of rock they play. It's a curious style that I would say best fits under progressive psychedelic space rock, at least for the music. Lyrically, the band pursue's stories of magic, nature, and the occult or at least that's what I've read. I haven't delved into the lyrics that deeply, though there is a track, "Ataraxia" that is sung by the three members like a pseudo-Gregorian chant and is about two sisters bathing in a river and the younger one is swept away by the current. She drowns but somehow expresses that mother should not think that she had drowned but has become wed for all eternity to the river. A little bit of Blue Oyster Cult in that, I feel.

But back to the music, I find it very curious that Spell are categorized as heavy metal. The guitar sound reminds me of the "Hemispheres" through to "Grace Under Pressure" period of Rush, more so for the chorus pedal and reverb effects with much less emphasis on distortion. Also perhaps the non-metal guitar parts of Judas Priest's "Take These Chains" and "Fever" from "Screaming for Vengeance.

As a three-piece, Spell fill their sonic space. The bass is often very prevalent in the mix though not as complex as what Geddy probably would have done. Still, the bass establishes itself as more than just a rhythm instrument. With the drums often having that gated quality, the guitars full of chorus and reverb, and the vocals also with an echo quality, many of the songs sound a lot like space rock to me. There is some synthesizer used but mostly as Rush used it early on: to give atmosphere and fill in a few spaces here and there. I guess you could say that Spell are a metal band playing with sounds that are not typically associated with "heavy" metal.

Aside from the vocal chant track, "Ataraxia", two tracks that stand out from the general atmosphere of the album are the previously mentioned "Dawn Wanderer" for it's very simple eighties alternative pop approached by a three-piece heavy metal band (who don’t sound metal heavy) and "Imprisoned by Shadows" because if you had put this album on a playlist with a hard rock album following it, you might just think that "Opulent Decay" had ended and the next album had begun.

The guitars on this track are quite obviously meant to be hard rock in sound and the whole song is very smartly a hard rock song. But even though the three tracks I have mentioned now will catch your attention exactly because they are different from the other tracks on the album, that progressive psychedelic space rock mélange of so many songs you might have heard from the seventies and eighties but just can't place exactly which ones is pretty captivating if you can get into that sort of thing. I keep going back to this album like I would go back to visit some curiosity that I can't quit marveling at and can't seem to understand satisfactorily. Maybe the next listen will reveal some new revelation? I love the Max Ernst album cover too!

Certainly as the bizarre mystic in the room who doesn't seem to belong and yet somehow does anyway, this album is a pleasant diversion from the usual metal scene.