Seth's The Howling Spirit boils down to well-written black metal without succumbing to the reverb-laden hallmarks and constant minor-chord bombardments that black metal so heavily relies on. Instead, Seth rises like a spectre from the grave and begins howling and haunting you like an absolute madman for the duration of the record.
If you're looking for another Les Blessures de l'Ame here, you'll be pleased. Seth bring back the magic from their well-known 1998 debut here in an interesting way. While Les Blessures de l'Ame was a little more thrashy and traditional black metal, The Howling Spirit channels more of a modern blackened death metal scene with that grandiose tonality of Les Blessures de l'Ame. Basically, think Behemoth having a kid with Dark Funeral who loved Seth's debut and wrote it with those bands in mind; it's like that.
The Howling Spirit knows when to rip out the black metal and when to slow the hell down and creep you out. There are total speed-fest songs like "Killing My Eyes" that stay true to what the traditional black metal fans would expect and love, but then there are songs like "One Ear to the Earth, One Eye to Heaven," which slows down utilizes a slow blast with some acoustic guitars and a little operatic singing toward the end. There's even "Scars Born from Bleeding Stars," which has zero clue what it wants to be and just goes for black metal and blackened death/thrash all at once… ambient section included.
The record is diverse and interesting; don't get turned away by the black metal label. Seth offer much more than what you might think.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n-jLIfLODvA[/youtube]
