Cathedral Speech sees Spirit Possession absolutely break the oath, as they take the sounds of first wave black metal on an ambitious, flamboyant ride.
Release date: October 2, 2026 | Sepulchral Voice Records/Profound Lore Records | Bandcamp | Instagram
First-wave black metal is not the first genre one thinks about when one thinks of boundary-pushing musical acts, though it very much pushed the envelope of extreme metal in its eighties heyday, when a truly global underground scene saw disparate locations from Japan to Brazil spawn idiosyncratic, highly influential bands that sounded like nothing before them. Ever since the explosion of second-wave black metal and its tabloid-friendly shenanigans, bands who follow the first-wave path often tend to simply emulate their early Sodom, Sigh, or Sepultura influences, without adding much flavor to a tried-and-true formula.
But some bands manage to pull off the impressive task of taking a genre that is deeply rooted in teenage years nostalgia, and add their own unique twist to it. Be it the reimagining of thrash metal through a black metal lens of Aura Noir or the barebones ritualistic flare of Moenen of Xezbeth, there’s enough life in the rotting-but-somehow-not-dead corpse of first-wave black metal for those creative enough to work with it and do some really cool shit. And when it comes to cool shit, well, let me tell ya: few bands can lay claim to that adjective more than Spirit Possession.
I’ve been a fan of this unit for a few years now, ever since I caught them live on a European tour. They were so good the first time that I had to see them again a week later; I can count the times this happened over the last decade on one hand. Somehow, the band has managed to kick it up a notch further with their new album, Cathedral Speech. It’s a record that builds on their already established credentials as blackened thrash metal annihilators and pulls from just about every eighties metal direction possible to create a blast from the past that is as lethal as a time bomb. You get the usual ‘Ugh!’ bits and dive bombs you’d expect on a record like this, and enough evil atmosphere to make Cronos of Venom proud (RIP, legend); but it adds more on top, a level of sophistication, dynamism, and songwriting wizardry full of twists and turns that will drop the jaw of anyone who might consider them a gimmick band.
Before I dive into the songs themselves, I gotta talk about the production. This album sounds incredible: sharp, clear, and massive, without sounding too modern or polished. In fact, it sounds like the band took the production values and approach of classic eighties hard rock and metal and just ran your favorite obscure German thrash band’s demo through it. Seriously, this record is more eighties than the average Stranger Things episode, but it just does it so right. The songs get room to shine, the songwriting does the heavy lifting, and the atmosphere never feels forced or artificially generated. Colin Marston is a genius, and what he did here should be studied by studio engineers everywhere.
As for the songs themselves, the duo of S. Peacock (guitars and vocals; of fellow weirdos Ulthar and the absolute beast that is Black Curse) and A. Spungin (drums and handmade synths; ex-Insect Ark) waste no time here in laying you to waste. The title track opens the album with operatic vocals and Yngwie Malmsteen-style solos, before erupting into massive thrash guitar runs and caveman drums, building an intro that explodes into a blasting all out attack. “Cathedral Speech” shows off the band’s penchant to constantly shift things and move from part to part at a relentless speed, before reigning it all in for a mesmerizing instrumental break that sounds like a lost interlude from a Necros Christos album.
Another interlude evoking some lost, secret temple ruins breezes by, and Spirit Possession lunges into the vicious “Hanged Angles as Patternwalls”, the best song on the record and a brilliant display of their comfort with mixing up black, thrash, heavy, and proto-death elements into one majestic whole. Just listen to those jingly guitar taps right at the 2-minute mark and how they give way to a plodding, satanic panic doom passage, and marvel at how these necro weirdos can pull it all off, turning this strange brew into their own undeniably original sonic identity.
Everything here starts with S. Peacock’s wild guitar playing. It’s not just the fact that he (shockingly, I must add) plays blackened thrash metal without a pick, it’s also all the bends and ringing notes he pulls off all the time; every seemingly generic thrash or proto black metal riff just sounds different here, with a unique signature and character. Coupled with the clear and warm production, this feels like Van Halen channeled through an Eastern Block tape trader’s fever dream; familiar yet alien, ruthless yet borderline psychedelic, and with a heavy dose of mysticism thrown in, like it’s a secret artifact you were never supposed to discover, like the first death metal tape you stumbled across while going through your older cousin’s things.
Now, if I’m coming off as too smitten here, perhaps it’s time to tamper my enthusiasm just a little bit. This is a great record, but not a perfect record. Clocking in at almost 45 minutes, it does get a little repetitive at times, and the fourth song, “The Sharpening”, kind of just trudges along. It could’ve easily been cut to make this record leaner and meaner, instead of dropping the energy slightly before the album’s closing three-song suite kicks in and gives A. Spungin her turn to shine. An argument could be made that this suite of songs could’ve been a release of its own, but it does contain some musical elements from earlier parts of the album, and honestly, when the songs are this good, who cares about structural logic.
To be clear, if you’re not a massive fan of first-wave black metal or blackened thrash in general, I’m not sure this album will win you over, because as original as it is, it still sticks to using the same genre tropes as construction materials, even if the end result is a very unique cathedral. But if you love any of those genres, or any eighties metal, really? Do not sleep on this record, as I’m telling you right now, you’ll be hard pressed to find more than three metal records this year that are better than this awesome, creative, and deliciously evil release. Time to hit play again, ugh!
