A love-letter to the eclecticism and experimentation displayed in the early-to-mid 2000s avant-garde black metal explosion.
The hardest part of writing about “Spectrum” is not to use too many superlatives. Since it’s release right at the beginning of 2025, the debut album of Steve Wiener’s solo project Am I In Trouble is one of the few works that has entered my personal rotation of albums I have to listen to from time to time. And I don’t think that will change anytime soon.
The care and imagination that went into every part of the songwriting is astounding. The general style of the music itself is hard to completely nail down; it has passages that sound like old-school BlackMetal, uses riffs that would not be out of place in PowerMetal, hits as hard as melodic DeathMetal, and frequently has parts that are inspired by classic Blues. And the opening and closing tracks are something completely different again.What makes this work so very well, is that while there is a clear respect and admiration for the classics of their respective genres, there is no nostalgia in the way the music was crafted. Steve took the parts that were working for his vision, and used them to create something cohesive, completely unique and fresh.
I didn’t even mention that the album is about the Nintendo character Kirby, right? The lyrics are consequently expanding on that character’s traits to tell a story of personal growth and the troubles of navigating a harsh world. And that’s a thing I would have never thought I would ever write.Overall, I love this album. It sounds incredible, is meticulously crafted and beautifully performed. I would not be surprised if I find it on lists of greatest albums of all time in 20 years; it seriously is that good! If someone has read this far and for some reason has not listened to “Spectrum” before, now is the best time to change that; I honestly can not recommend it highly enough.
It flickers with inventive swipes, plays with style and constantly teases. One minute it’s classical, the next minute it’s grinding riffs, switch again and it’s Simon and Garfunkel morphing into Mike Oldfield. It’s a heady mix.
This come all be a royal mess but the ingenuity, the talent, the ear for arrangement and the sheer joyfulness of it’s own unbounded creativity.
The arrangements and the technical ability to pull them off is out the top drawer but that kind of stuff is redundant without the melodic intent, the material to allow that to shine. The symbiotic nature of these technical abilities, songwriting chops and obvious love for what they are doing is on full display and honestly, this will the most joyful thing you will hear this month.
Epic, Glorious and Addictive.
Am I in Trouble’s ‘Spectrum’ sure is a record… whoo boy! Come sit down with auntie Eve so she can tell you all about this trip of a record…
So we start with an intro… as many albums tend to do… this one however sounds like Vivaldi?! No, not some obscure band that calls themselves Vivaldi for shits ‘n’ giggles, the actual Classical composer! So in that regard it sounds kinda jaunty in a pastoral way, and seeing as AIIT is a Metal band you might be thinking to yourselves “Ahah! The devious rascals, they be setting us upon a wrong foot! A pulling of the rug as it were!”. But, no? It actually is quite the fitting intro for what is to come and what is to come is what they themselves call Avant Garde Black Metal. And me, the casual Metal enjoyer is like… “Sure Jan…”. I’ll believe them. But while I’m not so much at home in the nitty-gritty of Metal subgenres I can however tell you how it sounds to my ears though.
And what I hear is Post Metal with a bombastic slant to it. Bombastic in a way that reminds me of Classical Orchestral Music in how it ebbs and flows. Often it sounds nothing less than euphoric in its tone which in combination with the orchestral feel you can see why I felt that the Vivaldi-esque intro here was quite fitting with the general tone of the album. Vocals range from growls to shrieks and plenty of beautiful almost choir-like clean passages while the music goes from atmospheric parts to Black Metal’s blastbeat infested arpeggio riffage.
So that aforementioned Black Metal is definitely present here though I feel hesitant to just leave it at that as I feel this album is so all encompassing in its sound and atmosphere that I feel it transcends the genre of mere Black Metal with it at times sounding downright proggy in its approach. And maybe that *is* the definition of Avant Garde Black Metal? In that case, hey! I learned a thing today!
And I most definitely learned that it is an interesting genre that requires some delving into. And if you feel the same after reading this then maybe this might be a good starting point as it’s an amazing record if you like your Metal to be a bit more expansive.