ALBUM REVIEW: Hostile Architecture – Ashenspire
Glasgow’s ASHENSPIRE may only have two albums under their belts at this point, but they have already managed to distinguish themselves as arguably one of the more progressive and imaginative acts, with their debut single, Mariners at Perdition’s Lighthouse and their 2017 full-length Speak Not Of The Laudanum Quandary showcasing a talent for wide ranging songwriting and a vast musical scope that perhaps only one or two acts within the UK’s already impressive black metal scene can match. The band’s long awaited second album, Hostile Architecture, if anything, pushes their music into even more experimental and grandiose heights, resulting in what many fans of black metal’s more avant-garde outer reaches will probably regard as their pick for album of the year.
The Law Of Asbestos blends hammered dulcimer and saxophones together, making for a suitably avant-garde start before slowly morphing into a far more demented and jarring piece of music that ties together elements of black metal with haunting, gothic violins, disjointed guitar and frenzied drumming that are more reminiscent of freeform jazz, but still with a denser extreme metal feel to them. There are some impressively unhinged vocals too, delivered almost in spoken word form. It’s a magnificent way to kick things off, and boasts a highly experimental approach and emotive intensity that’s hard not to get drawn in by immediately.
Béton Brut leans more heavily towards a black metal formula, albeit with some brilliant, progressive flourishes bringing together soaring, melodic guitars, deranged violin trills and pummelling percussion, with the music once again ebbing and flowing between frenetic energy and crawling, ponderous moments. Once again, the equally impassioned vocals carve through this musical maelstrom and command the listener’s attention. Plattenbau Persephone Praxis drastically alters the pace and tone, droning ambience quickly giving way to intricate drums, cavernous guitar chords and a more prominent bass sound. It strips away most, but certainly not all, of the classical instrumentation, with spartan, mournful violins and saxophones peppered throughout to complement the rest of the music rather than supplying too many hooks, allowing the guitars, drums and vocals to come into focus.
How The Mighty Have Vision, with its glorious choir sections, is another startling, but incredibly effective, stylistic shift, sounding as though it could fit easily into the score of a West End musical as opposed to a metal record, but it’s delivered with the right amount of emotion and with just enough ethereal guitars that it manages to pack a serious punch. Tragic Heroin lurches sharply towards discordance, with grating, borderline mathcore elements and similarly visceral vocal lines vying with the slick melodicism of the violins and the tight, marching drum beats to make for an excellent juxtaposition that, in spite of the stark contrast, works exceptionally well. Apathy As Arsenic Lethargy As Lead sees the guitars stripped away to their most minimalist form yet, with smooth, jazzy saxophones, morose violins and rich, sonorous singing interwoven into the fray to make for a far more relaxing but nonetheless challenging and eclectic listen.
Palimpsest makes use of cleaner guitar tones, delicate drumming and imaginatively placed saxophones, resulting in a more fluid and adventurous sound, and again makes its presence felt upon the record without having to delve into the heavier aspects of the band’s extremely varied range of influences. Much like the expansive songs that featured in this record’s first half, Cable Street Again utilises longer songwriting and, quite crucially, takes full advantage of it. With soothing pianos, sax and violins spread liberally throughout this particular offering, the heavy moments, when they come, are punishing, but more often reserved to the caustic diatribe of the vocals and a chunkier yet thoroughly bellicose guitar sound, with the song gradually descending into a whirlwind of dizzying and inspired musicianship without ever fully diving headlong into all out cacophony. It results in a wide ranging and ultimately fantastic climactic burst of energy.
Every so often, a record comes along that gets labelled with the often over-used tag of “instant classic”, and this is certainly one of them. The influence of A FOREST OF STARS looms large over quite a lot of this record, especially when it comes to the emotive delivery of the vocals, and possesses much of the same innovative songwriting that worked so well for them, albeit with a more pronounced presence of jazz in their sound. Along with A Shadowplay For Yesterdays by A FOREST OF STARS and London by VOICES, Hostile Architecture stands at the apex of UK black metal’s more experimental heights, and is uniformly outstanding from start to finish. At the expense of sounding hyperbolic, this could very well be the stand out album of the year, not just in black metal alone, but perhaps metal in general.
Rating: 10/10
Hostile Architecture is out now via Code666 Records.
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