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Opulent Decay

by SPELL

supported by
Steorraz
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Steorraz fantastic hypnotic heavy metal Favorite track: Sibyl Vane.
Aubrey Ingraham
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Aubrey Ingraham You know a band has something special going on when you keep coming back to listen time and time again. I'll never grow tired of listening to this album. Incredible musicianship. Fan for life. Favorite track: Deceiver.
Count Snackula
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Count Snackula A record that stands head and shoulders above the stampede of 2010s classic-metal cosplay, "Opulent Decay" is both the past and present of hard rock: reverent but visionary, reflective but creative.

Powerful hooks rear their cartoonish, saw-toothed heads from a hazy swamp of crunchy guitars, wailing solos and buzzing keyboard layers.

The rhythm section lopes and gallops through a mix that celebrates the bass. Favorite track: Opulent Decay.
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1.
Oh, golden apple of ambition Doubt is a serpent warning me so threateningly In raging silences he whispers: “Prudence is wisdom, denial is sage” To Psychic Death I'll bow Oh, hunger not for ours is famine Nor suffer lust for ours is infertility Renounce the pride of action The dying man regrets his life lived recklessly To psychic death I'll bow Silent as the moon To psychic death I'll bow Passive as the womb Silence the sea has never seen I cut away my thoughts Still as the sky could never be I cut away my heart I give what has no use to me Enthroned in lavish jewelry Sits Saint Austerity
2.
Pale comfort Sick in luxury Frail abundance She mocks sardonically Shivers, she, in land austere For comfort she can't bear Wayward she will turn away From those who court her desperately Opulent Decay You who've felt cold Sleep most sound on nature's bed Hunger leads you Your thirst will keep you fed Ask for something greater still Than ease can ever fill Lovesick artist, bid adieu and Lady Truth may follow you
3.
Sibyl Vane 04:28
A lone girl waits Her tears have long since passed But the cold cuts so deeply The summer never lasts Why did you think You could feel the morning sun But not suffer the cold ice of winter It's just begun Bright are the stages Where tragedy lies But from a desperate girl on a dark night They turn their eyes What's the difference When you live within your art If your days are spent in fiction Where does truth start? Heavy chains Drag this poor child down Heavy chains Wrap her round and round Sibyl Vane, wear your shackles proud The curtains are drawn on the last act of Sibyl Vane Chains of love No tears can ever rust This world seems so unforgiving Seems so unjust She moves like a sunset Last gaze at the sky Heavy chains in deep water Ripple her lullaby
4.
Beneath my wandering footsteps A path of flowers bloom Intoxicating colours Seduce with rich perfume Forget my past Renounce my future To this Primrose Path My senses pull me onwards I'm led as though a slave Enchanted pedals falling As autumn brings decay Cold winter looms
5.
Down in the night Ancient as sleep Abandon our raft into the deep Many still cling Thought she rots away On yesterdays' words their tongues decay The drowned stand proud once more As they sing their mournful song Their eyes beg me to join them But Iron Wind pulls me along Keep faith in me As we throw ourselves free I'll hold my doubts in silence Carried as slaves By iron bound waves Yield to the ocean's violence Though I may falter And fail to reach the shore Seek ye not after For tomorrow's yours Love me as the wolf loves her prey
6.
Infant born in mother's pain Wisdom earned through failure's gain Beauty lost to time's decay The sun sets on another day But dawn will come again Honest as a child at her play And when nothing else remains All I have is what I give away Love is learned in deepest loss Art is won at painful cost The runner suffers every mile The father sweats to feed his child
7.
Deceiver 05:43 video
A cavern lies Forgotten deep within the earth Alive with gold and bright with gems of boundless worth Untouched by hands, unseen by eyes The serpent whispered: “This wealth alone is mine” Below the roots of tallest tree A river trickles quietly And he who tastes it will be free To live his life eternally Within the trees An ancient temple waits 10,000 years interred in nature's deep embrace In crumbling halls still written clear Is knowledge of both man and God Concealed by time A songbird answers in reply “For all your wealth, what shame you cannot fly Despite what immortality may bring I pity you who cannot sing”
8.
Ataraxia 02:13
As towards the sea will tumble restless stone Two sisters bathed in river broad As winter's frost had recently thawed The elder's hair grew to her knees The young remembers all that she sees As towards the sea will tumble restless stone Though charged unto the younger tend The elder swam to shore again The young succumbed to current strong And to the river she now belongs As towards the sea will tumble restless bone Tell not our mother I've been drowned Oh say instead I'm joyfully wed These willows weeping bridesmaids proud Tall banks the isle down which I'm led Towards my love eternal, cold hard stone
9.
In shadows you always See what you fear In emptiness your eyes See most clear I only feel your warmth in the dead of night I remember the fading image But I can't quite... Can't shake this feeling I'm imprisoned by shadows In sleepless nights... (hear the spectral voice around me) in fear delight... I'm imprisoned by shadows Vessel of change I'm caught in your chains Awake within sleep I'm trapped in your dreams
10.
Ivy bound hands Reach out in welcome or in warning Ruins stand Choked with dust and time Seek deep in memory Come lose your way to me If I put out my eyes you'll see Conceal the world from me If I cut out my tongue you'll speak Rise up from ancient sleep What secrets do you keep? Strange fires burn Lead astray into illusion A page is turned Lost before the dawn Sought in banality Found in periphery

about

“Music, like dreams, exists in feeling rather than explanation. In sleep, the strangest things can elicit joy or terror — this is why dreams are so difficult to articulate. Creating music, for me, is similar; often, I’ll wake in the dead of night with a powerful feeling or melody in my mind, not connected to reality in any concrete way. I’ll then leap out of bed to try and capture it before it disappears!”

Thus reckons Cam Mesmer, bassist and vocalist of Spell. Hailing from Vancouver, British Columbia, yet divining their art from the realm of nocturnal visions and fantasies, this band have already proven themselves mighty chroniclers of the more supernatural quarters of the heavy music sphere.

Full Moon Sessions, their 2014 debut (reissued in 2018 on Bad Omen) and 2017’s For None And All are proof positive of an outfit — completed by drummer and co-vocalist Al Lester and guitarist Graham McVie - whose grasp of crepuscular atmosphere and diverting dynamics matched their infectious song-craft. However, these were apparently mere preludes to Opulent Decay, the band’s third and finest record to date on Bad Omen Records, and an aural vista where moonlit melody, strident heaviness and potent romanticism collide to startling effect.

Recorded by Felix Fung at Little Red Sounds studio in New Westminster, B.C., it’s an emotionally charged psychic travelogue wreathed in mysticism. Opulent Decay embraces harmonic guitar heraldry while also showcasing a band as adept at essaying a hymnal acapella piece like the beguiling ‘Ataraxia’ as they are the wistful and melancholic 'Dawn Wanderer', the pastoral-tinged and progressively slanted 'Primrose Path' or the catchy and barnstorming title-track. “Many bands find their third album the most difficult because they’re trying to recreate what they’ve already done; for us, it gets easier and better every time,” clarifies Cam. “As ideas emerged during the writing process, we nurtured them and gave them all the time and care they needed to flourish and bloom.”

Lyrically, as well as the influence of romantic poets like Keats, Shelley and Coleridge, there's an underlying concept, as Cam explains: “All of the songs deal with the contrast between opulence and austerity, and the decay that results from imbalance. Our drive to avoid suffering is strong, but it can be overcome by the love for another and the desire to put them before yourself. Opulent Decay examines this balance and the dangers that await on either side of the pendulum."

Some might hear the echoes of legends like Rush and Blue Öyster Cult in these chimerical serenades, but this is a record that sounds like no one but Spell. With Opulent Decay, the band marks their own delirious and affecting journey towards musical nirvana, above and beyond any spurious notions of retro-chic.

"After being obsessed with heavy metal our whole lives, we feel entitled to take it in our own direction and decide what that looks like," elucidates Cam. "We’ve taken the heavy metal sounds we know and pushed them to the most exciting places we can. Whatever people choose to call it, this is a heavy metal record as much as anything else — hypnotizing heavy metal."

credits

released April 10, 2020

Produced by Felix Fung at Little Red Sounds
Mastered by Greg Mindorff at Suite Sound Labs

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SPELL Vancouver, British Columbia

HYPNOTIC HEAVY METAL

Cam Mesmer — bass/vocals/guitar

Al Lester — drums/vocals/guitar

Gabriel B — synth/guitar

Jeff Black — guitar

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