Review THE SPIRIT ‘Of Clarity and Galactic Structures’

One of the most influential musical exports from Saarland, Germany is The Spirit. MS and MT started in 2015 and already their debut album, ‘Sounds of the Vortex’, was much appreciated by the metal community.

To date, The Spirt has two albums under the belt and the duo adds with ‘Of Clarity and Galactic Structures’ a next one end of April. The third album of the German metal enthusiasts is the result of a hard and relentless 12 months work process. It took a year for the German metal blacksmiths to forge an album the builds on the previous two releases and lifts things to a next level.

‘Of Clarity and Galactic Structures’ features eight songs, showing a broadness that not every blackened metal band can bring to the plate. Already the length of these evil anthems shows the songwriting talent of Matthias Trautes and Manuel Steitz. Four to seven minutes, these are the frames in which The Spirit operate with precision and quality.

The album starts with the title track, a mammoth beginning of the album that acts as a first musical blast. The sound of metal hitting metal kicks off the song before a massive riff takes over and guides the song towards a rapid masterpiece. The Spirit combines the morbidity of death metal with the hellish grin of black metal, with packaging everything in a galactic context.

After having had a look on the opener, let’s stock to the cornerstones of this album. The last tune on the album is very exciting since slightly different. The duo continued with their layered approach to songs and evolved it further. ‘Laniakea’, the closer is a good example of stretching the frames without losing the original intention. The last track on ‘Of Clarity and Galactic Structures’ carries the sound of a synth, something the band had in mind already for a while. This time they turned the intention into reality, and it fits perfectly. Also, the placing on the tracklist might be an interesting signal. Will it be something The Spirit will continue to work with in the future and how will it be possible to perform this song live. Now the future will provide the answer.

Fans of layered and multifaceted metal should have this album on the metal shopping list. The Spirit, that is more than a moniker only. Spirit is what acts as the driving force for the band that adds with ‘Of Clarity and Galactic Structures’ another stellar release to their shining metal portfolio. Horns up.