ASH BORER
Bloodlands 12″ Review

Ash Borer’s Cold of Ages was a heavily acclaimed (and rightly so) full length record from a band that has been constantly shifting the boundaries and expectations of the modern black metal band. From their inauspicious beginnings and an almost mythical demo as well as a split with another incredible American band – Fell Voices – the hype machine never seemed to stop. Luckily, Ash Borer have all the talent to back up the love they often get from fans and “critics” alike.

2013 sees Ash Borer touring Europe – although sadly, UK fans will have to travel to the continent in order to catch them – with the aforementioned Fell Voices and also releasing the subject of this review. Bloodlands is a three track 12″ which will be issued via Gilead Media and Psychic Violence in the very near future and features three tracks of signature Ash Borer woe.

Atmospheric shades of dusk are created with gorgeously sorrowful synth lines that carry all the weight of the world within the shimmering tones of “Oblivion’s Spring” and it’s clear that in the short months that have passed between Cold of Ages and now, Ash Borer have refined their sound even further. Structures are clear and demanding and the constant shift to new passages is coherent and beautifully controlled despite the frenetic bombast beneath in the sublime strikes of the drum and the hoarse shouts of vocalist K. As with Cold of Ages, Bloodlands fits the Ash Borer aesthetic in it’s primal need to banish feelings of decay and rage and “Oblivion’s Spring” is the sound of death and perhaps even rebirth.

“Dirge” ushers in a terrifically all-encompassing sound; the guitars work and build together into a wall of monstrous proportions and shed total darkness on the undercurrent of synthesised sound and if you listen very, very closely it may be that there is a deeply hidden voice traversing the entirety of the song, so hidden that it could be of course, a figment of the overworked imagination. Still, the instrumentation around it is so overwhelming that the mind creates new sounds in order to make sense of it all and thus we are led into “Purgation” quite splendidly.

The processional, lamenting melody continues to swirl with a hypnotic rhythm and grips with a tangible fervour as it slowly moves towards the coming end. The pace suddenly switches, the lack of warning throwing you off but leaving you desperate for more. The climactic development of the song takes it’s sweet, sweet time to evolve from these frantic moments and it’s almost painful in it’s unbearable movement. “Purgation” finally unfurls it’s harsh wings of termination in a wave of screaming feedback and burning noise and it’s evident that Ash Borer have become more exceptional than ever dreamed. Bloodlands is stunning.