It did not take but a couple of spins to get to know this ones design. Where Lost Age Of Darkness offered an intriguing shade of despairing mystique and Carpathian Melancholy elongated it to lengthy passages, Spectral Kingdom of Nocturnal Sorcery hinges on a minimalist design that doesn't evoke the same magic. Its baron buzz-saw synths are all too bold, upfront and dull. At first glance, perhaps it offers a passing, ancient dazzle but housed by its slow droning percussive loop of hi-hat and deep bellowing tom drum with the occasional gong strike... the whole project is to repetitious and obvious in construct to indulge with as it slugs through slow, drawn out notations that can't rely on the texture for its atmosphere or identity.
After its six minutes of cold ambiguous engine noise that album shifts to its four lengthy cuts that all hinge around a single synth tone. They circle around the same idea, methodically slow, minimal progression in notation and providing some variation on the theme with additional instruments but the magic is just missing entirely. With so little of the pallet being changed track to track, you can practically suss the record out through the first song along. Essentially it feels like a simple execution of a concept with very little to flesh it out. The slow pacing and bold synth tones don't conjure much for me at all, even as background music it grates away in a static state.
Rating: 3/10