CEREBRUM — Spectral Extravagance (review)

CEREBRUM — Spectral Extravagance album cover

Album · 2009 · Technical Death Metal

4/5 · 2011-07-02
UMUR

"Spectral Extravagance" is the debut full-length studio album by Greek technical/progressive death metal act Cerebrum. The album was released through Lacerated Enemy Records in August 2009. Most of the album was already recorded in April/May of 2007 but I assume it took a couple of years to find the right record company. Cerebrum, which consist of Apollon Zigomalas on vocals, Jim Touras on guitar and Mike Papadopoulos on guitars/bass, didn´t have a drummer in the lineup when they recorded "Spectral Extravagance", but was helped out on the album by drummer George Kollias (Nile, Sickening Horror, Nightfall, The Circle of Zaphyan, System Shock, Extremity Obsession).

The music on the album is technical/progressive death metal with lots of early nineties US death metal sensibilities. The lyrical themes are about astrology, archaeology, and other rather interesting subjects. So Cerebrum is no blood´n´gore type death metal act. Cerebrum mentions acts such as Atheist, Death, Morbid Angel, Gorguts, Watchtower, King Crimson, Pestilence, and Nocturnus among their incluences (I would add Theory in Practice as a reference too). Those influences are quite obvious when listening to "Spectral Extravagance" and while Morbid Angel is probably the least progressive band among those influences it´s especially the Morbid Angel influence that is strong in the music. The music on the album is brutal technical death metal first and foremost and then progressive. The progressive elements on the album are, in addition to the song structures, mostly represented by the odd jazzy part which occur in some songs. There´s an example of that in a track like "Edge of Parallel Circles". All 11 tracks on the album are of a very high quality but if I have to make one small complaint it´s that the progressive parts don´t always fit too well with the rest of the music. All parts are great but the short jazzy parts featured in some of the tracks sometimes sound a bit awkward in the predominantly brutal technical death metal soundscape. Bear in mind that this is a minor, minor complaint on an otherwise excellent album so don´t let this scare you away.

The vocals are deep growls but still intelligible. There are also some sporadic clean vocal parts featured on the music which is definitely a great asset and good for the variation of the album. The clean vocals actually remind me a bit of how David Vincent (Morbid Angel) sounded on "God of Emptiness" from the "Covenant (1993)" album. In these days there´s always a danger of extreme metal acts that include clean singing in their music chose to include commercially accessible clean vocals, but that´s fortunately not the case with Cerebrum. They are quite old school in that regard.

The musicianship on the album is on a high level on all posts. Great razor sharp and fast riffing, excellent growling vocals (and some pretty good clean ones too) and of course some powerful and technically skilled drumming by George Kollias. The guitar solos are generally pretty short but well played and suit the music. The production is professional and well sounding too.

"Spectral Extravagance" is a great quality debut album by Cerebrum and thinking back to the albums I´ve listened to in this genre from 2009 this one is easily one of the best. A 4 star (80%) rating is fully deserved. A quality album this one, which I can highly recommend to fans of technical/progressive death metal with an early nineties sensibility.

more than 2 years ago
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UMUR wrote:

more than 2 years ago

I´d like to stress here though (if anyone should gets any ideas), that I fully stand by my rating of the album. I don´t give out "friend" ratings.

UMUR wrote:

more than 2 years ago

I´ve actually edited my original PA review a bit before posting it here on MMA. I think it turned out pretty good too. I had a bit of correspondence with Apollon a few years back and he arranged for Lacerated Enemy to send me a promo of the album. I owe you a beer if you ever come to Denmark Apollon!

Xaxaar wrote:

more than 2 years ago

Oh wow, I completely forgot about this one. I remember giving it a shot when it came out because I heard George Kollias was on it. Great album and review. :)