Kev Rowland Finnish Black Metal act S.I. have been around since 2005, and released their debut album ‘Cultus Nex’ in 2009. It was that album that started to gain interest in the band and they followed it up with ‘II - Exalted Spectres’ in 2010. Now here we are there years later and they are back with the next instalment, which can be translated “The Light of Those Down Below, the Dead” (apparently). The band has been through quite a few line-up changes over the years, which has seen members of bands such as Evil Angel, Exordium, Neutron Hammer, The Crescent, Urn, Vitsaus and others pass through the ranks, and the current line-up is Von Bastard (guitars, main songwriting), Tooloud (bass), Revenant (drums) with new vocalist/lyricist Wrathprayer. They have been building a reputation on the live circuit for their uncompromising shows and thay have gone some way in capturing that on the album.

There is nothing incredibly fancy here, what you see is what you get, so if you enjoy corpse paint and everything that goes with it then this is probably an album for you. In many ways it hearkens back to the classic old school days of BM, and the production here is spot on for the music. They haven’t gone with the “you can barely hear it so it must be great wall of noise” that some bands try, and also have been too clinical so the power really comes through. To be honest I hadn’t come across SI before hearing this, but it has made me think that it is probably worth searching out their earlier material as well. A very solid offering indeed. www.sacrilegiousimpalement.com

Vehemency Many of my Finn acquaintances tend to hype Sacrilegious Impalement a lot, much thanks to the band’s major debut Cultus Nex released a couple of years ago. But I was never truly impressed as the evident Watain worship, combined to a soulless Necromorbus studio sound, lacked all necessary power and feeling of danger. Now the band is back with II - Exalted Spectres for which I had higher hopes, but I’m getting similar vibes as I got with Cultus Nex. There’s the discordance, the evil and profoundly Satanic atmosphere, and at times the faster bursts of enraged violence, but when it is all executed so carefully in a professional production, where does reside all sense of truthful hazard and unpredictability?

Don’t get me totally wrong: at what the band does on Exalted Spectres, it does it with skill. Not every band out there is capable of creating something as massive as this album, and not everyone can pull out vocals like Hellwind Inferion in his possessed, mid-range screams, most perfectly delivered on ”Aletheia” which is sung in native tongue, making it sound more authentic and emotional than e.g. the common ’six six six’ proclamations in English. The twirling tremolo melodies are a pleasure to hear as well but unfortunately they provide nothing out of the ordinary and, honestly speaking, almost none of the melodies on Exalted Spectres could be said to be really memorable afterwards. It’s all enjoyable during the course of listening, yet not sticking to head afterwards, no matter how many spins I give the album.

The mediocrity is probably at its worst on a track like ”Omnipotens Aeterne” which almost practically repeats the previous songs, but there are also highlights worth mentioning: ”Woods in a Solitary Soul” is one personal favourite of mine, almost three of its five minutes being distortionless, lurking menace with guitars and whispered vocals. Then there’s ”Grand Funeral Convoy” which is a very fitting bookend song, ending the album with the record’s best song progressions, culminating into some sweet lead melody. But what comes to the more common pieces of Watain esque black metal, à la ”Blessed to Resist” or ”Wolves of the Black Moon”, I can’t say they really move me in a direction or another.

If you were one of those who found Cultus Nex good, then there’s of course no need to hesitate at all at checking out Exalted Spextres. I am willing to bet that those will love this one as well, as even I am able to hear that at least they haven’t gotten worse at all. Exalted Spectres is an album I can always listen to and enjoy it to a certain extent, but does it comprise heart-wrenching, goosebumps inducing material? No, none that I am aware of so far, though I’ve tried. Decent black metal combining the aggression of more traditional bands with the ominous atmosphere of more modern bands. That is what I hear Exalted Spectres to be to the bone.