SPECTRAL SOULS – Towards Extinction / VINYL LP

Formed in 2019, it didn’t take Peruvian death metallers Spectral Souls long to feel the effects of Coronavirus, the global pandemic throwing their plans into chaos within months. After eventually completing work on their full-length debut, the Lima-based act released Towards Extinction (Hammerheart Records) digitally last year but are now reissuing the album in a variety of more traditional physical formats.
Inspired by the usual old school suspects, Spectral Souls also lean heavily on the likes of Dutch deathsters Pestilence, frontman Martín Revoredo often showing similarities to Martin van Drunen. Barking like an irate Rottweiler one moment, sounding like Satan belching up his internal organs after guzzling ten litres of cola the next.
Nihilistic and bleak, Towards Extinction explores themes such as humanity’s capability for self-destruction, religion, politics, and general misery and suffering by means of bludgeoning violence and primal savagery rather than subtlety and nuance. Invisible omnipresent deities come under attack straight away with ‘No More God for Me’, a full throttle opener with more stops and time changes than a replacement bus service. ‘No Hope Humanity’ straddles the border between death and thrash, leaving you with a wonderfully violent mess about show business, mass consumerism and media corruption.