Black metal has grown and flourished in many ways, and that hasn’t left everyone happy. I’ve always been one who’s fine with a sound’s evolution as long as it doesn’t stray into something unidentifiable, and there’s plenty out there to please most. Yet, there’s something about the basement aesthetics of the one-man black metal project that still gets me, a primitive state we don’t hear that often these days.
Aspaarn return with their fourth record “Oblations in Atrocity,” and it feels like it swirls in the early 1990s, when the point was to use instruments and tools that were lo-fi, to the early 2000s when strong playing under the canopy of chaos was more widely embraced. Here, sole creator Solaris Lupus builds upon his already ash-caked discography with these six tracks that feel like lost phantoms crying out in a damned night. Yet, if you listen closely through the glaze, you can hear the melodies, the carnage, the mental anguish that informs these songs. At the same time, the creator is reimagining ancient European culture where multiple deities informed life as well as lashing back at modern scourges such as totalitarianism, bigotry, repression and other ills that continue to haunt and destroy us.
“The Order of Fear” opens in a thick haze of eeriness, the washed-out black metal attack feeling like it originates from the beginning of the subgenre. The drums maul while the cries are buried beneath the noise, grim hissing and tornadic guitars doing battle, chaos caked to walls, the furnace opening and dragging you inside. “Memories in Suffering” clubs instantly as the guitars fire up, raw cries rippling as the guitars crawl into the darkness, encircling as the drums hammer. The pace races harder, digging in as the morbidity thickens, crushing with gravitational force, the howls smearing as the chaos finally subsides. “Silence of the Gods” brings warped guitars tangling, and then everything speeds up as cavernous sounds absorb your sense of self. The pace drives and drubs, sooty melodies taking hold, carving pathways as the pressure builds and explodes.
“Duty in Hecatomb” brings humidity and lapping guitars, growls retching as the pace strangles, monstrous gasps activating your nervous system. Guitars flood and stagger as hypnosis takes hold, the playing turning cold and bowing to echoes, the sooty finish spitting infernal sludge. “Boundless Hunger” hammers with urgency, staggering through disorienting passages, working into a heated, yet jerky section that shakes up your insides. Growls lash as the pace shreds, crazed and molten punishment aligning, guitars jangling to a dusty grave. Closer “All Reaching Misery” is the longest track, running a healthy 9:38 and lighting up with guitars raging and howls twisting guts. The playing warps as the drums open wounds, strange synth haunting as a gothy pathway is stomped with madness. Things continue to disorient even as the hammers drop with force, the guitars expanding and charging, the vocals taking full command one last time, and the final notes dissolving into an inky synth bath.
Aspaarn’s journey into maniacal delusion and unquestionable darkness feels like a nightmare that refuses to release its grip on “Oblations in Atrocity.” This record harkens back to the basement black metal record from two and three decades ago, as that terrifying nostalgia hits blackened brains and tortured hearts that have suffered immeasurable damage over that time. This record is a sort of wormhole back underneath the blanket of sonic damage, one that acknowledges our own wounds along with the creator’s and turns them into an altar at which we can burn these woes and spread the ashes into our mouths.
For more on the band, go here: https://aspaarn.bandcamp.com/music
To buy the album, go here: https://aspaarn.bandcamp.com/album/oblations-in-atrocity
Meat Mead Metal 