ASH BORER - Ash Borer

A Californian quartet, Ash Borer renew the sensory upheaval of black metal, signing a self-titled work of powerful atmospheric impact, thoroughly at ease with its psychedelic lineage.

Three hymns devoted to perdition. Three grisly, perverse hymns, ecstatic and noisy, torn between respect for convention and its violent disintegration, whether through a setup bordering on the most extreme noise (see some of the most chaotic moments of "In the Midst of Life, We Are In Death", halfway between Krallice and Liturgy), with commendable reinterpretations of the wordless language of the unsurpassed Weakling ("Rest, You Are Lightning", which takes a run-up from the tail of the previous track before launching into another close-combat assault) and progressive numbers of no small significance (the peak being "My Curse Was Raised In The Darkness Against a Doomsday Silence", introduced by icy guitar chords, upended by a searing interlude, cradled by epic swells and defused by a spatial epilogue).

Alongside the obvious Scandinavian lineage, filtered nonetheless through the masterful lesson of the band behind "Dead As Dreams", Ash Borer deploy a doom background (and again, just ask John Gossard...) not to be underestimated (some moments in the central section of "Rest, You Are Lightning" should make things clear) in shaping a sound that, precisely in this balance/clash of influences, seeks its reason for being, setting itself apart from the excessive flatness of so many bands treading, more or less, the same paths.

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24/12/2011