Exploration involves taking risks. You never know what you're going to discover or what monsters might be lurking in the shadows of dark, unexplored regions. In these new adventures, Swiss musician Reto Mäder (bass, synth, effects, composition, oddities) is accompanied by singer Marko Neuman and drummer/keyboardist Jukka Rämänen. Together, the three continue to take Sum of R beyond known limits, mixing experimental doom, krautrock, noise, metal, ambient and hallucinations to offer a psychedelic ritual, this time entitled Spectral.
With such a name, you're entitled to expect something as disturbing as it is haunting and elusive. With its slow tempo and hypnotic guitars, Solace immediately exudes an occult power of fascination. Guest vocalist Juho ‘Jun-His’ Vanhanen from the alchemists Oranssi Pazuzu casts a spell. Lamentations, growls, a sound that swells and gains in amplitude and intensity: it's all mysterious, opaque, exciting, terrifying... but there's a twist. Without knowing it, we've just listened to the ‘reassuring and easy’ track on the album, which means that what follows promises to be tortuous!
Spectral regularly puts us in a position of discomfort and unease. With its layers of sound, distant dehumanised voices haunting the synth pads and its inarticulate sounds, Sum of R plunge us into darkness. Madness reigns and creeps, time stretches out, tension becomes unbearable with the ambient horrors of Agglomeration (featuring bassist George Stuart Dahlquist, formerly of Sunn O))), Burning Witch and Goatsnake) or the delirious rumblings of Null, eight minutes of hallucinatory immersion in insanity interspersed with surreal contemplations. Later, Violate surrounds us with a swarm of spectres whose lamentations are as grotesque as they are frightening, the expressionist torments contained in the vocals taking on an immaterial turn with the reverb before visceral screams finally release all these ghosts in a raging and cathartic movement. In this unreal context, the gothic refinement of Yusaf ‘Vicotnik’ Parvez's (Dødheimsgard) clear vocals seems almost reassuring on Beer Cans In a Bottomless Pit, a progressive delirium tremens that gradually draws us into a horrific circus with disjointed, joyless dances.
Sum of R describes their album as an exorcism. The parallel is clear: there are spirits in there that refuse to leave and will have to be painfully extracted, a multitude of voices that drive you mad. The madness takes on a sombre tone with Waltz of Death, whose theatrical and solemn heaviness has something sacred about it, or The Solution, a menacing procession with, once again, that funeral atmosphere. In their explorations, Sum of R have led us astray into the realm of spirits, and these spirits are hungry, malicious, and dream of your soul. The séance has gone wrong and the forces invoked will not be easy to tame: Spectral is once again a singular, exciting work, filled with darkness, moments of pure terror, but also a few rare contemplative moments. Approach it with caution, for this is the kind of ritual that brings ancient, forgotten and unnameable entities home with us!
