Spectral Mortuary

The splash screen on www.spectralmortuary.com sports a graphic that simply says "brutal death metal” and if you’re going to be so up front about such things, you’d better deliver on such a succinct statement. Fortunately, Spectral Mortuary’s first full-length release lives up to their brutality claim. ("Brutality claim” is a great pairing of random words that would make for a good band name, just like "spectral” and "mortuary.”) Boasting a somewhat standard musical palate derived from Cannibal Corpse or Morbid Angel (as well as two dudes named Morten), Spectral Mortuary serve up a decent debut. The production value and musicianship are not to be ignored but there isn’t anything on display here that makes them stand out from the crowd of European death metal bands. Listeners looking for a more revolutionary and epic death metal experience should stick to Hate Eternal, but perhaps keep a close eye on Spectral Mortuary. Hopefully they can build on this foundation and change things up a bit in the future. Until then, although they most definitely live up to the brutal death metal claim, From Hate Incarnated isn’t really anything beyond that.