Today,Iron Bonehead ProductionssetsAugust 19thas the international release date forEntropy, the highly anticipated debut album of Australia'sSpire. Shrouded in a mystique as shadowy and ominous as their moniker,Spirehave seen a slow 'n' steady evolution since their formation in 2007, releasing a self-titled EP in 2010 and then the murky 'n' majesticMetamorphEP in 2011. So enthralled by the fathomless expanses of the latter,Iron Boneheadsaw fit to releaseMetamorphon 12" vinyl before the close of 2014. The stage was thus set forSpire's inevitable debut album...and at last, it arrives inEntropy.
Much asMetamorphwas ever aptly titled, the title ofEntropyportends much of its malignant, miasmic contents. Since their fortuitous beginnings,Spire's black metal is an obsidian tower both ascending and descending, to the heavens and the hells, an unbreakable/unshakable continuum of grim splendor 'n' despair. But whereas a lot of slow(er) black metal simply sounds like that - "slow" - theSpiresound carries a very patient,simmeringaura, that continuum portending darker, more doomed things than the reigned-in pace suggests, that cyclonic violence is around the corner, lurking dread to be imminently invoked. And indeed it is invoked acrossEntropy, and often, as the spiraling ascent/descent is even more malaised 'n' hazed, the violence more threatening and dramatic, and the shifts between the two both sudden and subtle.
But unlikeSpire's earlier work, the atmosphere ofEntropysolely stems from both the songwriting and its execution rather than simply the sound itself. In fact, one could argue thatEntropyis daresay "well produced" or at least more than a bit clear; its murk wholly arises from the record's contents and those players willing it into being. When the trend in modern underground metal is utter obfuscation - and often, when there's little to nothing of any value worth obscuring in the first place -Spire's clarity of expression is a daring move, and one suggestive of a band whose confidence and mastery have at last conjoined. One must only hear the closing, 14-minute title track to corroborate this fact.
