SPITe
NYC esotericist seeks Judaic-styled damnation
Spite is the solo project of Brooklyn, NY-based multiinstrumentalist Salpsan. His mission? To represent “the gritty, unpolished parts of NYC you won’t see on TV, yet still exist, which also birthed our forefathers Carnivore, Type O Negative and many notable NYHC legends.”
While he admits that playing as live drummer for both Occultation and Negative Plane in 2014-15 taught him a lot, he freely cites the old guard of Norwegian black metal – Satyricon, Immortal, Darkthrone, etc – as influences, as well as other respected bands like Craft, Behexen and Katharsis. “All that being said,” he states, “Slayer is still the greatest source of inspiration for me, and in my opinion Hell Awaits is the finest black metal album ever written.”
Spite’s debut full-length, Antimoshiach, was recorded and mixed over the course of just eight days in London in December 2016 where he was temporarily stranded, as he was due to be touring as the bass player with local NWOBHM revivalists Amulet. Their singer, Jamie Elton, recorded and produced the album in his own studio.
The term ‘Moshiach’ stands for Messiah in Judaism, a religion and culture that Salpsan grew up around. “It had an enormous presence in NYC compared to other American cities,” he explains.
“The language, songs, and texts of Judaism can evoke very powerful and dark themes, which seemed fitting for the grand imagery
I am trying to evoke with Spite. ‘Antimoshiach’ can be synonymous with ‘Antichrist’, but also generally designates an unholy anointed figure who will ascend and be the catalyst for Armageddon.”
For Salpsan, Spite’s lyrical themes are of paramount of importance, and to that end he’s adapted passages of both Judaic and Christian mythos to include the presence of the Devil and the Antimessiah. “There are also some lyrical references to themes and characters in Spite’s older songs,” he says, “as this project is intended to be a cohesive canon of blasphemous mythology, but I’ll leave it up to the listener to find all the connecting threads.”