Hailing from Germany, THE SPIRIT is an Extreme Metal band formed in 2015. The duo released two previous albums, and now return with their third, titled "Of Clarity and Galactic Structures," which contains eight tracks. The title track leads off the album. It begins with a heavy riff and some harsh vocals. The guitars dart in and out and around the structured riffs with precision. The Progressive elements are noticeable as well, as the duo toy with the meter and some dark progressions. "The Climax of Dejection" being with a full-on assault on your senses, with a gloomy riff that hints at the end of the world. It slows to a grind of meaty bass notes within the guitar and drum parts.

"Repression" opens with another slow groove of explorative lead notes and some chunky bass thuds. The chord progressions are unique, but the over-reliance on harsh vocals does create some linear structures. "Celestial Fire" begins with more of those exploratory lead notes. I finally rest on who the singer reminds me of...the singer for DARK TRANQUILLITY. They have a similar snarl. "Transition" is just that...a clean segue from the first half of the album to the final three tracks. It's a clean, acoustical number that clocks in at under a minute.

"Timbre of Infinity" is another deadly track with fast-moving guitars and harsh vocals. But at this point in the album, I expected some more diversity; some surprises if you will. The slower passage towards the end does bring a bit of this. "Arcane Wanderer" begins in a similar manner as the previous tracks. The amount of doom and gloom they can extract in their music is noteworthy, but again, it's just too much of the same thing track after track. "Laniakea" closes the album. It's an instrumental that seeks out some different sounds, especially with those eerie key notes under the guitars, bass, and drums. A little more of this would have gone a long way in the final product.

This was an interesting album for sure but did get just a bit repetitive over eight tracks. The duo is obviously talented but need to find way to work in different elements into their music. It's Progressive Metal, so the sky is the limit. I admire their strong sense of themselves as songwriters but expanding their sound could go a long way. It was a good album but could have been better.