After the explosive impact of their last release, I was excited to hear Black Fast‘s latest musical offering.
On the surface, Spectre of Ruin is a solid metal album. It has ferocious energy, top-tier production, and is consistently heavy throughout. I can’t help but feel though that the overall product is quite generic. There are a few moments, such as the bridge on ‘Cloak of Lies’ where the riff work is reminiscent of Terms of Surrender, but aside from that, the riffs are rare and brief.
Interestingly, there’s a lot more black metal influence this time around. Instead of experimenting with it, however, Black Fast seems to have sacrificed its own unique flavour for one that can be found anywhere in the scene right now. Honestly, it just felt like I was listening to Abbath’s solo project without Abbath. There’s some thrashing, some bar chords, and a big helping of gloominess, but not much in the way of substance.
In conclusion, I wish there was at least one song on this record which captured my attention or excited me, but there was not. This new sound of theirs has been executed skillfully, but the ideas behind that execution are depressingly derivative. All filler, no killer.
