German black metal unit The Spirit is now streaming their new record Of Clarity And Galactic Structures. While cosmic black metal has become more prevalent over the years, Of Clarity And Galactic Structures should be viewed as one of the genre's frontrunners. Equal parts brutally heavy and stargazing-ly beautiful, this is one not to be missed.
"You quite easily become a prisoner of your comfort zone as a musician," said vocalist, guitarist, and bassist Matthias Trautes. "To get out of my own comfort zone, I worked with a lot of odd time signatures during the song writing. I do listen to a lot of prog rock and most of my favourite bands are from within this genre. But still it was quite a challenge for me at the beginning, to write music beyond the standard of 4/4 and 3/4 and merge those prog elements into our sound.
"But damn, this was so much fun, and I definitely became a better musician during the song writing period. The Spirit's sound gained much more depth on this new album."
Of Clarity And Galactic Structures was recorded and mixed at the Woodshed Studio by V. Santura, and with the drums being tracked at Iguana Studios by Christoph Brandes. The cover artwork was painted by internationally renowned artist Eliran Kantor, and pre-orders for the record are available here before its April 29 release date (and here in Europe).