Necronautical have always been about exploring the darkness. Their very name means 'To explore death'. It's fitting, then, that on their fourth album, 'Slain in the Spirit', the Manchester band are pushing both their sound and their concept to the outer limits. Since forming in 2010, Necronautical's name has become well respected among the British black metal underground. Across three albums - 2014's 'Black Sea Misanthropy', 2016's 'The Endurance at Night' and 2019's Candlelight Records debut 'Apotheosis' - their sound has become one rich in its skill with the dark side of metal. Ambitious and grandiose in its symphonic touches, this velvet glove hides beneath it an aggressive iron fist. On 'Slain in the Spirit', this is truer than ever. Everything has been taken to a degree beyond where the band have trodden previously, with the symphonic elements swirling even more dizzyingly above a metallic attack that hits with an almost machine-like ferocity. So much so that the band have transcended black metal altogether.