Vehemency Being a fan of Erhabenheit, I was more than willing to hear what this duo has to offer on their other project Wolfsschrei, and The Unknown Spectre of Evil turned out to be a fairly worthy EP of aggressive and relentless black metal, even with the flaws that easily occur within this style.

First and foremost, Wolfsschrei plays fast. Hell, this is rapid! The thin production - that could do better with some more punch, by the way - is fitting considering the fast-paced nature of the music. Guitars are in the highest role, delivering those evil chords and one-string saw buzzing, but points have to be given also to the session drummer from Sõjaruun: without his powerful battering The Unknown Spectre of Evil could lack the necessary energy. Taaken’s vocals are worth mentioning too, his not-so-raspy yet convincing screams are fittingly full of anguish and hate.

The main glitch of the EP is the actual compositions that, no matter how killing, don’t differ much from each other. Luckily The Unknown Spectre of Evil runs just for less than 24 minutes, which is about the maximum length for this style that, instead of any proper variation, just rampages on throughout. ”May Death Be Your Purpose” does bring some melody and even a slight sense of calmness to the music in the latter half, belonging to the EP’s standout moments. Here’s to hoping that in the future Wolfsschrei composes more in this vein because it seems to work well.

Keeping in mind how many times this kind of music has been done already, it’s hard to rate The Unknown Spectre of Evil very highly. There’s no sign of any remarkably brilliant riffs, but I do think the intense, energetic style Wolfsschrei plays here is enough convincing to save the EP from falling to the category of uninteresting black metal. If you want your black metal relentlessly fast and still natural sounding, The Unknown Spectre of Evil might be your thing.