Band:	Spectral Lore
Album:	11 Days
Style:	Dark ambient, Atmospheric black metal
Release date:	March 2023

01. Moloch
02. Fortitude/Sunrise
03. Adro Onzi
04. Tremor/Kalunga Line

Spectral Lore continues the trend of releasing full-lengths disguised as EPs.

I am perhaps focusing too much on a surface level aspect of 11 Days, but it is still a bit confusing as to why, with its 44 minutes of runtime, it is still passed off as an EP. That's runtime disconnect is something I've commented on before, but usually that's something that's prone to happen for bands or genres where the runtime usually exceeds one hour, and that would be a likely explanation, since the previous ones, both that one with the horrendous cover art and the split/collab with Mare Cognitum were 75 and 115 minutes respectively, and with the trilogy of Voyager, Gnossis, Fossils EPs all ranging between 35 and 50 minutes, you'd just suppose that Spectral Lore shifted the runtime requirements between full lengths and EPs, but then you have the first LP, aptly titled I, being a bit over 45 minutes, slightly shorter than the Gnossis EP and about as long as 11 Days. I know the length is not the only thing that makes an EP, and you might want to release something that would branch from your usual sound without affecting the main line of full length releases. But 11 Days isn't too far off from Spectral Lore's usual sound.

Ok, that rant out of the way, the reason why 11 Days might be considered an EP is its structure. It's divided into four roughly equal tracks of around ten minutes each, with two black metal tracks alternating with two more ambient focused tracks. Neither of which would feel very out of place on any Spectral Lore release, but its structure is making it feel at least a bit unique. Also unique is the concept behind the album, with the album detailing the trials and tribulations of the over 25000 refugees who drowned trying to cross the Mediterranean Sea, and protesting against the practices that lead to those deaths. Something that definitely explains the stormy sea on the cover art and the channel where the album is streaming. Not like Ayloss didn't make his political stance very clear before. I doubt the album being a protest is gonna lead to any change, but as a mere musical representation of a very real suffering, it's pretty successful.

The blend of the tremolo-picked guitar playing and the monolithic synths atop do create some of the most ravenous of Spectral Lore's moments, and are especially direct by atmospheric black metal standards. While the drums being programmed takes away a bit of the impact an actual drummer might've had, it's not very distracting here, where the riffing and the vicious vocals attract so much of the attention. There are some guest vocals spread throughout but "Adro Onzi" has some of the most vicious vocals I've heard on a Spectral Lore track. But what really works for 11 Days is how well the album flows from each track to the next, making the ambient tracks feel less like interludes and more like fully fleshed out songs that still very very urgent despite their lengths, due to touches of space ambient and progressive electronica. I wouldn't be surprised if a lot of people choose one of the ambient tracks as their favorite from this, and that not due to the black metal bits hypothetically lacking. All of this makes listening to 11 Days work really well as a unitary experience, especially with the concept in mind, to create a really evocative listen.

With the many side-projects that Ayloss has been involved in lately, it's great to see that the blood of Spectral Lore is still flowing. Even in its relatively shorter forms. Now one can only expect the actual upcoming full length to be a behemoth of an album.