Druid Lord / Skeletal Spectre - "Druid Lord vs Skeletal Spectre Split 7” ...

A little gem, a little filthy gem. That’s what this poisonus pill of doom-death metal is. Just two songs are included in this split, but they are ghoulish. No surprise as they are from two bands out of those rather recent, when not young, acts religiously devoted to the evocation, or I should say “exhumation”, of old-school (doom) death metal in its most horror-filled and ghastly sides. The exhumation is invariably successful when the ghouls involved were active actors of the scene back in time or are total, faithful devotees. I’m speaking about Druid Lord, from Florida, USA, related to legendary Incubus and long-lived Equinox, and about Skeletal Spectre, from Sweden/USA, involving the horror doom-death banshee by definition, Vanessa Nocera of Wooden Stake, Scaremaker etc. fame. Both bands are therefore directly or indirectly known to Doommantia readers. After their early successful full-length albums, Druid Lord and Skeletal Spectre have been working on several splits and EPs suggesting what scary tunes are to be expected for the future. This split was released last year at Halloween. It is out via label Horror Pain Gore Death Productions as killer limited edition on translucent, funereal purple vinyl and cool packaging.

Track “Dark Age Sorcery”, by Druid Lord, is a concentrate of evil, darkness and perversion expressed by means of slow, crushing distortion, sick and sinister Floridian death metal-styled riffs and sepulchral atmospheres where doom is adding tombstone-like heaviness as well as a sort of morbid, swampish retro-groove. Growled vocals are overwhelmed by the coarse vibration of the heavily downtuned guitars. The effect is like scary roars from the underworld muffled by the soil on the tomb … They are coming!!!!   Track “Malevolent Patricide”, by Skeletal Spectre, is lead by some tight, obsessive, relentless, earth-ripping riffage sustained by a seismic drumming. Absolutely inhuman, infernal vocals by Vanessa, occasionally backed by guitarist Behold The Pentagram, are coupled with the deep distorted, and sometimes sickly dissonant howls of the lead guitar. This track is therefore rather dynamic although the pace periodically slows down into morbid mixtures of distortion and dissonance. Hell is open …Prescribed for those who are into Coffins, Decrepitaph, Hooded Menace, Acid Witch, and other nasty new and old sick bunches of metallers …

Words: Marilena Moroni

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