Spell

Spell

Opulent Decay

Bad Omen Records

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."

Spell

The Full Moon Sessions (Expanded Edition)

Bad Omen Records

The Vancouver-based power trio Spell have wasted little time proving themselves the new masters of the metaphysical. Their first record for Bad Omen For None And All sent shockwaves across the metal underground with its mystical and malevolent brand of metallic witchcraft, in which seventies-styled atmosphere and eighties-damaged drama undertook a dark marriage with satisfyingly timeless results. Yet this was the second chapter in this band’s life proper, and the first—the band’s debut and their rawest, hungriest statement of intent—has gone unreleased in its intended form. Until now, that is.  Comprising ten wild and electrifying ditties informed equally by savage finesse and gung-ho intensity, Full Moon Sessions—which was originally released as a six song mini-album in 2014—chronicles an era where these three devotees of the transformative power of heavy amplification (comprising Cam Mesmer on vocals / bass guitar, guitarist Graham McVie, and drummer Lester Spectre) had recently evolved from their earlier incarnation as the thrasher Stryker, henceforth allowing their dreams and passion to run rampant in abundance, which summarily resulted in a document with irresistible anthemic bravura to match its jagged attack. “These songs are born from our youthful struggle to survive, to make ends meet, and to find our place in the world,” reveals Mesmer, “We created this album on almost no budget while working full-time minimum wage jobs and scraping by. It was a labour of love and inspired by hardship—countless late night rehearsals after evening work shifts, followed by early morning shifts on a few hours of...