black metal
To be perfectly honest, I haven't been following the black metal scene that much in the past few years. The genre simply isn't that fascinating to me anymore because I feel like I've heard it all in the nineties and early nillies. However, whenever The Netherlands throw something in my inbox, my old dark soul often skips a beat. I absolutely love the Dutch extreme music scenes. That adoration started in the late seventies with Golden Earring and Alquin, got stronger with Kong and slowly moved towards the extremes with bands like The Gathering, Unlord, Dead Neanderthals and Ggu:ll. So, geographically speaking, Asgrauw has an advantage. Let's see if they can live up to that.
Well, of course they bloody can. Asgrauw was formed in 2010 in Gelderland, focusing on raw black metal inspired by the extreme nineties and the punk scene. 'Ijsval' is their fourth album to date and it's a brutal attempt to shatter whatever sanity is still left in your mind. All the necessary ingredients are available: gruesome vocals, flesh tearing riffs and machinegun drums. It feels like being back in those grainy venues in 1996, smelling of beer, smoke and piss, being torn apart by a piercing wall of sound and moshing the night away. Oh, those were the days.
What makes 'Ijsval' so interesting is the perfect combination of brutal, punk-induced black metal as in 'Nevel', ruthless black metal as in 'Heilloos' and the somewhat more anthemic approach of the title track 'Ijsval'. Furthermore, the whole thing sounds so incredibly convincing that every self respecting black metal fan will appreciate this blaster. So, if you feel stuck in the nineties and if you are looking for more of that amazing old school stuff, Gelderland is the place to be. Get your hands on a copy of this album now.
Serge
Well, of course they bloody can. Asgrauw was formed in 2010 in Gelderland, focusing on raw black metal inspired by the extreme nineties and the punk scene. 'Ijsval' is their fourth album to date and it's a brutal attempt to shatter whatever sanity is still left in your mind. All the necessary ingredients are available: gruesome vocals, flesh tearing riffs and machinegun drums. It feels like being back in those grainy venues in 1996, smelling of beer, smoke and piss, being torn apart by a piercing wall of sound and moshing the night away. Oh, those were the days.
What makes 'Ijsval' so interesting is the perfect combination of brutal, punk-induced black metal as in 'Nevel', ruthless black metal as in 'Heilloos' and the somewhat more anthemic approach of the title track 'Ijsval'. Furthermore, the whole thing sounds so incredibly convincing that every self respecting black metal fan will appreciate this blaster. So, if you feel stuck in the nineties and if you are looking for more of that amazing old school stuff, Gelderland is the place to be. Get your hands on a copy of this album now.
Serge
