Lathspell - Torn Cold Void

LATHSPELL - Torn Cold Void (WOLFSPELL Records - CD 2016)

I just finished listening to Sarastus debut album and here’s another Finish black metal band from Wolfspell Records roster, with digipak CD released in cooperation with Patologian Laboratorio Productions. Here’s Lathspell with “Torn Cold Void”. Their name is familiar, but I cannot remember if I’ve really heard anything from their biography before (and this is already their fourth full length album, so I have some work to do to catch up with Lathspell discography). Anyways, in Lathspell line up you’ll find Grim666 on bass / vocals, who’s obviously known from many other projects, such as Kalmankantaja. Musically though there’s just absolutely nothing what both bands would have in common.

I have to say that “Torn Cold Void” is one of the best releases from Wolfspell Records so far. I’ve really enjoyed this album a lot and have been spinning this CD more than anything else in the past days. It’s just one of those releases, which maybe won’t be ever called groundbreaking and classic, but the music is so well composed and played and everything sounds so damn awesome that you just wanna listen to it again and again… and again! It definitely is more than just solid release; it’s something that I wanna recommend to all black metal maniacs.

There’re only four tracks on “Torn Cold Void”, but the overall length is close to 40 minutes, so it’s a lot of music. With average 10 minutes per song, Lathspell managed to keep the listener interested and comes with great riffs one after another. Their music is not that typical Finnish harsh and cold, primitive black metal, alike to Horna. And that’s good. It’s relatively fast black metal, with some slower parts thrown here and there to create more diverse and interesting effects. Riffs, which are here, are very sharp and vicious, they have a strong melodic base, sort of in the vein of many Swedish black metal bands, which keep their black metal fast and melodic. It all sounds great, because the music is so bloody aggressive and fierce, but it has a proper obscure atmosphere and the whole album is filled with great dose of energy to rip your souls. In songs like “Beneath the Flaming Earth” I could find only fantastic riffage (like the opening riff, what a killer!!!) – whether the music is fast or slower (like in the further part of this track), it sounds damn great and I cannot stop playing it loud as fuck. It bursts with hatred and viciousness, it rips the flesh apart and it simply delivers a killer dose of black metal slaughter.

The sound quality of “Torn Cold Void” is perfect also, so if I had to make a short summary of this review, I would just say that Lathspell came up with almost flawless black metal album. It has everything you should like about fast black metal and despite having so lengthy songs, it never bores or gets monotonous. “Torn Cold Void” surely belongs to the most surprising releases of Wolfspell Records… and you know, instead of wanking over the new Dark Funeral, who bores to death as always, you should simply get this Lathspell album and give it a listen. It’s way different music when compared to other Grim666 projects, but for me Lathspell crushes them all.

Standout track: “Beneath the Flaming Earth”

Final rate: 80/100