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Aspherium is a band we knew by name and reputation but never quite found the moment to give the richness of attention that all bands deserve. That has forcibly been amended with the release of their third album The Embers of Eternity, which with thanks to our friend Andrew at Stencil PR who directed us its way, suggests we have definitely been missing out.
Hailing from Moss/Oslo in Norway, Aspherium began in 2007 and took little time in brewing up a progressive death metal sound which was unafraid to embrace plenty of additional flavours; a fusion now in full bloom and imagination within The Embers of Eternity. 2011 saw the release of debut album The Veil of Serenity to a host of positive reviews which its successor, The Fall of Therenia, eclipsed as it took the band’s sound to new heights. Slots at major festivals followed as too a couple of tours alongside Decapitated. A swift hindsight exploration in the wake of the release of The Embers of Eternity revealed why the band received strong acclaim and attention at the time but all before has been just the teaser for the might of Aspherium’s third full-length.
The Embers of Eternity is a concept album imagining the future of our own Earth; “The world has become a desolate wasteland, the album about what happened and why humanity did nothing to save our planet.” Lyrically and in story it quickly proved a compelling adventure which is majorly accentuated again by the exploration of sound and imagination around it as immediately proven by the album’s opening title track. Immediately drama and tension soaks the notes and presence of the emerging track; the guitars of Marius Skarsem Pedersen and Morten Nielsen weaving the intimation. Equally they are the instigators of the erupting surge of aggression and melodic enterprise which descends on the senses soon after, the rhythmic voracity of drummer Bjørn Tore Erlandsen and bassist Torgeir Lyby Pettersen fuelling the upsurge. Similarly too, the vocals of Pedersen make for an uncompromising and magnetic proposition amidst thrash bred riffs and the blackened textures which shape the death bred incitement. As each subsequent track reveals, it is part deceptive too, the viciousness of the assault veined and aligned with melodic intricacies and dexterity as their inherent creative emprise though bred on discontent of a world descending into chaos relishes its beauty too.
It is a striking and compelling start to the release but one still eclipsed by the following As We Walk Through the Ashes. It too launches on thrash nurtured hostility with grooves that wind around the senses with lustful toxicity and similarly revels in the more delicate but no less hungry imagination which subsequently makes every twist and passage until the next aggressive captivation as riveting. Unpredictability also shapes the track and in turn the whole album but with a craft and invention which soon becomes expected and keenly devoured. As its predecessor and the songs to come, it weaves a multi-flavoured incitement which took no time to fully immerse in.
The evocative and melancholy opening of The Fallen Monument bewitches before the track explodes in another cauldron of pugnacious trespass and imagination woven fertility; a tapestry of flavours and creative agility breeding a glorious and rousing proposal lustfully devoured by ears and passions alike. It is the album’s finest moment for us but constantly challenged as A Voice For the Silenced and its successor The Shadows of Creation quickly show. The opening atmospheric suggestion of the first had the imagination immediately submerged in its insinuation, its haunting caresses continuing to manipulate as the track erupts with the second casting matching persuasion in its physical venting and melodic storytelling. It is a volatile and gripping mix which savages as it seduces, preys on fears as it nurtures raw hopes.
Through the individual but unitedly insightful and adroit exploits of Echoes of A Lost World and The Beckoning Spire, Aspherium and their album only increased the magnetism. Neither track quite matched up to the heights of the triumph before them had but each gripped with bold ferocity and unpredictable landscapes before Beneath the Shattered Sky bore its own soulful voice and rich adventurous enterprise on ears to equally inflame those self-same eager reactions.
Until the Embers Fade completes the album, it’s near on eleven minutes alone a journey and exploration worth investing in the sensational The Embers of Eternity for. It is an engrossing and fascinating end to an increasingly compelling release and a fine example as to why like us once you engage in the Aspherium ravening craft and sound there is no turning back.
The Embers of Eternity is available now @ https://aspherium.bandcamp.com/album/the-embers-of-eternity
http://www.aspherium.com/ https://www.facebook.com/Aspherium https://twitter.com/aspherium
Pete RingMaster 25/01/2020
Copyright RingMasterReview: MyFreeCopyright
The EP opens with The Unnamed, a track instantly entangling ears in ripe grooves and preying rhythms before launching into a predacious assault. The sonic invasion and enticement of both guitars make for a keen tempting, Ben’s vocals as the sound earthy yet magnetic within the harassment of riffs and rhythmic aggression. The subsequent twists and melodic endeavour that emerges revels in the prowess of their creators, the track a persistent hungry nagging endowed with that bright enterprise.
It begins with the enthralling Miasma, a piece of music which instantly hooked the imagination with its mournful orchestration and melodic melancholy. Its initial portentous breath is soon a tempest of sound and intensity cored by a groove which just seeped under the skin. The predominantly instrumental track provides a deluge of craft and suggestion within its polluted air, closing with the same captivation it rose from before the album’s title track launches its own turbulent contagion.
NewAgeNarcissist equally made brief work of recruiting neck muscles and fiercely flung limbs, Smith’s fierce tones and lyrics riding the insistence with similar dexterity. The swarm of grooves across the song devoured as they sparked the appetite, rhythms just as uncompromisingly fertile before the track unleashes a chorus only the deaf could ignore. Every moment within the ravening song though is pure virulence and creative prowess, qualities just as rampant within next up My Peace Of Hell, a track galloping through ears with nostrils flared and breath aflame. A punk ferocity adds to the theatre of persuasion as too the web of enterprise cast by the ever agile guitars with another galvanic chorus a viral topping to it all.
It is a great if unsurprising start to the release which is taken up a notch by the following Misanthropic Collapse. From its first breath seriously appetising grooves collude with hunger bearing riffs, rhythms again an imposing attack in the contagion of it all. Once more there is plenty to recognise but there is a freshness which as with its predecessor marks it out before the quickly impressing Repulsive Messiah steps up to prowl the listener within an apocalyptic collage. Within moments it becomes a nagging addiction of guitar as Doblinger stalks the landscape with his predatory words, death metal hues adding to the drama and temptation. Subsequent threads of melodic enterprise vine the confrontation bringing bolder imagination to the band’s sound.
Behind The Glow sets things off, a lure of guitar central to its potent invitation before the song sets off on its thrash nurtured canter. The guitars of Phil Elste and Timo Kammerer only continue to entice as the latter’s gruff tones enter the creative affray. It is an attack though with melodic dexterity strapped to its rhythmic punch, riffs and grooves casting a subtle yet bold web to the aggressive but controlled nature of drummer Lukas Mayr’s strikes and the heavy dark bassline of Max Wopinsk. There is an imagination and craft to band and song though which ultimately holds attention keenest and caps the satisfaction naturally bred by the EP’s great start.