Speglas – Endarkenment, Being, and Death
Release Date: 27th February 2026
Label: Trust No One Recordings
Bandcamp
Genre: Blackened Progressive Death, Blackened Death Metal, Heavy Metal.
FFO: Sweven, Morbus Chron, Horrendous, Chapel of Disease.
Review By: Aeons Burning
There’s something cooking in the waters in Sweden. Way back in 2015, a band called Morbus Chron switched from their meat-n-taters death metal leanings to a blend of progressive death metal that was never before heard. It was a lot more introspective than contemporaries at the time, but unfortunately they split up the same year they released their sophomore record Sweven. Sweven would go on to form from the ashes of Morbus Chron in 2020, and release The Eternal Resonance. However, there was a third band silently waiting for their time to release an album – Speglas. Consisting of two members of Sweven and others, Speglas quietly released two EPs – one in 2015 and one in 2022. Both were captivating blends of a similar style of progressive death metal to Morbus Chron’s final record, and when they finally broke their silence in late 2025, I was beyond excited to listen to the debut that’s been so long in the works. The hype was absolutely warranted, too, because Speglas’ debut LP Endarkenment, Being, and Death is one of the strongest debuts I’ve heard in quite a while and one of the best records of 2026.
Rather than being a pure Morbus Chron successor, Speglas greatly expands on all the elements that make Morbus Chron, Sweven, and even Horrendous excellent by adding little dashes of black metal and even traditional heavy metal to their progressive death metal. Endarkenment, Being, and Death is a lot more on the melancholic side rather than the introspective side, and it’s immediately apparent in intro track Woe. Unlike nearly every other band that has intro tracks, Speglas absolutely nail the intro, as Woe bleeds perfectly into The Endarkenment, a piece of blackened ferocity that immediately floors me at just how goddamn IMPECCABLE this record sounds. Simon Söderberg, formerly of Ghost, did the mixing, and he made sure to capture every sound perfectly. The tones on this album are nothing short of perfection, with special attention to the vocal layering and bass tones throughout the entire record that are objectively wonderful to listen to.
The songs themselves are also immaculate, with Dearth bringing Sweven-style riffs, and the two-punch closing combo Dies Mali and Rage Upon the Dying Fire bringing eerily similar Chapel of Disease-style sounds to bring the album to a banger close. The highlight for me is Dies Mali, which brings a hefty dose of speed to this somber affair, and doesn’t let the foot off the gas until the end, and brings you into the final, epic piece Rage Upon the Dying Fire, which has an infectious chorus that you can’t help but sing along to. Speglas took the already sky-high expectations I had and shot them out of the park.
With such a rich pedigree in the scene as all the musicians present here have, there was never any doubt in my mind that Speglas’ debut record would be anything short of a masterpiece, and I was right. Endarkenment, Being, and Death is a killer album that will be guaranteed to hit a lot of people’s end of year lists, with it currently being tied for the number one spot on mine. I can only hope that Speglas continues on and releases more music this good in the future, because this debut is quite frankly an insane way to have people learn about them for the first time. Other progressive death metal bands have a lot of work to do if they want to even come close to the exceptionally high standards set with this album. I cannot recommend it, or Speglas, enough.
(4.5 / 5)
