Metal Anarchy

Time for the next edition of Metal Anarchy’s “new music showcase,” the feature where I introduce you to artists that readers of this site may find interesting. This time I have a Q&A with The Spectre Beneath.

METAL ANARCHY: Tell me a little about your band:

THE SPECTRE BENEATH: The Spectre Beneath is a prog/power metal band from the north-west of England, not too far from Manchester. If you like power metal and progressive metal but don’t want to go too far in either direction, The Spectre Beneath could be for you. Definitely all clean vocals to allow for big harmony choruses. We certainly have fast songs and lots of melody but also longer more involved tracks. However, under the surface is an undercurrent of thrash especially with the pace and turbo charged riffs. Also, we make a point of not having layers of keyboards either, apart from some piano and a few atmospheric drones, we try and keep the music riff and vocal focused.

We began in January 2019. I’d just finished an album with my other project, Plague and the Decay in which drummer Consta plays. When I started writing the follow up, the music seemed to be more melodic and a little less thrashy but with just the same amount of twisting riffs. It was a slight shift in tone and I thought it would be a good idea to add a female vocal to bring out the melodic side even more. Consta was onboard and then long time collaborator, Katy Lennon, helped write and add nuance to the vocal melodies so they would suit a female voice. I then found L Lockser from an online demo she’d posted and we managed to put our debut album, The Downfall of Judith King, in September of that year.

METAL ANARCHY: Who are your main influences?

THE SPECTRE BENEATH: Initially, it was Iron Maiden. I loved the epic sound, the fact the songs weren’t just three minutes, the lyrical content was always interesting and the theatrics were wonderful. At the time, I used to love AC/DC and Van Halen as well because that’s what my friends and I all listened to, but, from a musical inspiration stand point, I was more influenced by Iron Maiden, that was until I heard Megadeth and then things took another turn and where my love of thrash began. In hindsight, I think Iron Maiden inspired me to write songs whereas Megadeth inspired me to write riffs. In regards to The Spectre Beneath, there’s definitely Megadeth and Iron Maiden in there, but, thematically, Queensryche as well. Vocal and melody wise, I’ve always been a Kobra Paige fan, I love her delivery and I wanted to mix that with the crystal clear tone of Fuki from Unlucky Morpheus. I guess the music is a melting pot of all the above.

From a lyrical point of view, we love our horror movies and dark themed stories and books, however, Queensryche’s Operation Mindcrime was a huge influence due to the thematic nature of it. Our lyrics are like flash fiction in song form, we’re not great at writing real world topics and touchy-feely stuff, we like our stories.

METAL ANARCHY: What is your latest release and why should readers of this site check it out?

THE SPECTRE BENEATH: Our latest release is our new single, ‘Time Dilation,’ which came out on Friday June 9th. It’s the second single off our mini album, ‘The Ashen Child’, which is out on July 14th. A melancholic blend of crunching guitars and dark, haunting melodies, Time Dilation is a heart-breaking love story across the gravitational pull of a black hole. After the crash bang wallop of our first single, ‘Forsaken…We All Fall’, we were eager to show what else The Spectre Beneath has in its locker. As one reviewer described us, ‘The sound of The Spectre Beneath is uniquely their own. The eclectic mix that makes this happen is why this is such an original and refreshing act to listen to.’ I think that sums us up quite nicely.

METAL ANARCHY: What can people expect when they go to your live shows?

THE SPECTRE BENEATH: Live shows have not entered the equation yet because we’ve been focussed regrouping after losing a singer and trying to find a new one. With myself supplying bass duties and most of the guitars on the albums, we’d need some extra troops to complete a gigging line-up. However, we’d love to bring The Spectre Beneath to the live arena but we’re still consolidating as well as writing and recording.

METAL ANARCHY: Where do you see your band heading in 5 years?

THE SPECTRE BENEATH: When co-writer Katy Lennon and I got together to start writing music for The Spectre Beneath, we envisioned five albums with the fifth one being a full concept continuing the story of Sidney Stone. Although we’ve suffered a couple of bumps in the road over the last two and a half years, our aspirations are still to reach that five-album goal, to write the best music we can, to leave our mark in our corner of the metal world and, at the end of all that, be in a position and have the opportunity to go beyond our initial plans and push The Spectre Beneath further. We have a mini-LP out later this year with 6 songs on it. We have album number four planned out and I would say 70% of it is written. After two and a half years without releasing anything we are keen to get more music out there. After that, I think we’ll have enough material under our belts leading us to concentrate on live shows, so, in five years time I would like The Spectre Beneath to have five albums to our name, gigging regularly and still enjoying it. They’re not lofty goals I am sure you’ll agree, but it’s a plan and, as we’ve already found out, things can change quite quickly and not always for the better which makes our goals more realistic.