Ashen : "Ritual of Ash"

 

This album came out back in January. Even back in our Death is June celebration of death metal it evaded our radar . They are not bringing anything new to the table , but rather breathing new infection into old wounds. It is hard to not hear the sonic resemblance to Morbid Angel. Where they start the album with a more deliberate stomp by the second they begin to get the itch to rush things by hurtling the riffs past you with demonic acceleration. However the devil is in the detail, so doing so misses opportunities to summon more interesting atmosphere. "Harbringer" does a better job of finding it's own groove. This is due to the guitars  leaning more firmly into melody. 

"Threshold" continues this trend and while I appreciate the catchy riffs packed into , there is something that does not hook me in the same way as the previous song. They begin to have spoken vocals layered over the low vocals. Which add dimension, but I would not do it on more than two songs. They bring some sonic dissonance to allow things more of a pulse with "Blood" which works well. They continue to prove themselves as songwriters who are not just here for the brutality, but are adverse for ordering a healthy portion of it on the side when it comes to the catchy slither of "Cursed Rebirth". There is a little of this to "Embrace Extinction" though at times some of the riffs feel like pumped Metallica, which I guess in some ways death metal is, but more in terms of the intervals being used. When you hear it you will know it. 

What helps these guys is keeping the songs to a very compact three and half minute length, rather than dragging things out into redundancy. "Gravemind" reaches a riff with a grinding mechanical drone that works well. "Buried in Ice" swings with the purposefully epic feel that can be heard in some of the European strains of death metal. So more Entombed here than Morbid Angel, which works for me as well. These guys might self identify as old school death metal but I think they are bringing a fresh set of songwriting skills that they are able to play with old toys in ways that puts them together in a different manner. They end things with a closing hymn that is heavier than the bulk of the album, it also does not have the same charisma of finesse that can be heard in the overall musical theme of the album. With that said this is still a really great death metal album, there is stiff competition and it might not stand toe to toe with say Frozen Soul or Horrendous, but is better than most, so I will give this album a 9.