Spell – Opulent Decay

The third full-length album from Canadian rockers Spell sees the band delivering a collection of music with a stronger sense of identity and a more professional overall feel, while at the same time staying true to all of their trademarks.

So, this is still ’70s-inspired psych heavy rock, but with that rather crucial hypnotic, dreamy feel. That atmosphere is a defining element of Spell’s music and one that separates them from some of their more obvious inspirations such as Blue Öyster Cult, Cauldron, Diamond Head and NWOBHM in general. This aspect was hardly noticeable on their debut, but it became much more prominent on the follow-up, For None and All.

On their third album, the band seems determined to shake off some of those numerous comparisons and instead focus on what truly sets them apart — and frankly, what is one of their greatest strengths. Opulent Decay has a far more pronounced dreamy quality, with a bit less of the raw classic metal feel that characterized the previous two albums. The band achieves this through a more rounded production that, despite retaining some raw qualities, is noticeably more polished than before.

Another major aspect lies in the overall feel and structure of the melodies, which carry a stronger hypnotic quality. On top of that, Opulent Decay features more interplay between the band’s main vocalist and bassist Cam Mayhem and the band’s second vocalist and drummer Lester. Giving Lester more room adds further dynamics to both the melodies and the album as a whole, which suits the material particularly well. At the same time, Mayhem’s vocals have improved significantly and now feel far more balanced. He focuses almost exclusively on his lower register, which also complements the album’s atmosphere.

The flow of the album is quite impressive as well, and the band even manages to move almost seamlessly from the rocking “Deceiver” into the heavily layered a cappella piece “Ataraxia”.

Musically, the band may still operate on fairly familiar ground, which is important for maintaining their identity, but the new album also marks their most diverse release so far, even if the experimental elements are often quite subtle. These are not used to push the band into some radically new direction, but rather to underline Spell’s own identity and further enhance the flavour and atmosphere of their music.

The band’s previous album already showed them putting greater emphasis on atmosphere, which was a significant step forward from their 2014 debut Full Moon Sessions, an album that largely came across as a tribute to NWOBHM.

With Opulent Decay, Spell manage to stay true to their core while clearly evolving as a band. More importantly, they dare to bring the unique elements of their sound fully to the forefront. The result is mesmerizing — an album that is not only their finest to date, but one that, compared to the previous two releases, simply stands in a league of its own.

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