ALBUM REVIEW: Ascetic – Norse

Historically, it’s been commonplace for bands to adopt a heavier sound in their early days before shifting into a more accessible one as they develop and gain a following. In the last few years however, the opposite seems to be true, with bands starting out catchy and melodic and slowly devolving into far headier and more discordant fare with each subsequent release, with excellent results. Australia’s NORSE are one of the many bands that fall into this latter category. Formed back in 2005, and initially crafting a polished and melodic brand of blackened death metal, they slowly morphed into a more dissonant black metal act, with 2017’s The Divine Light of a New Sun being the first album by the band to fully embrace this new, darker sound. Their latest album, Ascetic, sees them nurture this sound even further, making for what is easily their most abrasive and potent effort to date.

Ascetic starts the album off with a thick slab of rhythmic black metal interspersed with discordant leads and acerbic vocals which provide a sharp contrast to the chunky undercurrent. The massive, slightly jarring quality of the music belies what’s to come, setting a bleak and powerful tone straight away. Parasite Warmongers takes the dissonance that was present on the previous song and leans heavily into it, with the rumbling bass, tight drumming and disjointed guitar work all making for a layered, interesting feel, and the feral snarl of the vocals adding aggression to this bizarre but impressive offering.

Fearless Filth Seeker proves to be an eerier affair, slowly building from a slower, more ethereal tone in its opening moments to a hazier, more foreboding one as it progresses. Here, the vocals take on a whispered delivery that lends itself to the haunting nature of the rest of the track. Accelerated Subversion, by contrast, is decidedly intense, with thunderous drums, intricate, bellicose guitars and huge, meaty basslines all giving this song a focused approach that still possesses plenty of the great atonal side of the band’s sound to keep it unpredictable even when the album is at its catchiest.

Radical Depression shifts back towards a more spartan, almost ambient style that has been hinted at earlier, but never fully explored in the way it is here. It seems far more subdued, and not just from a musical standpoint; the production on this song in particular makes it sound opaque and murky, ultimately contributing significantly to its appeal. Zero Insight is built around its rhythm section, with the drums and bass adding plenty of depth while the guitars and vocals serve as a counterpoint that ebbs and flows in and out and injects a biting edge into the music. With a few chaotic flourishes breaking up the monolithic and imposing sound, it results in an extremely immersive and imaginative offering.

Blight is a short affair that blends the atmospheric ambience that underpins much of the album with a cacophonous, rabid style that is more akin to grindcore than black metal, establishing this brief yet brilliant track as perhaps the album’s most savage. Useless is another eclectic blend of tones and styles that works well, with the clash between the punishing drums, vitriolic vocals, lighter guitars and incredibly powerful, effective bass hooks providing a more diverse and engrossing sound. The juxtaposition between the weighty rhythmic sections, the grandiose quality of the guitars, and the bestial delivery of the vocals elevates this song significantly, serving as a great conclusion to the record.

Ascetic showcases a band finally fully shedding their early style and influences, bringing this dissonant strain of black metal to full realisation. On The Divine Light of a New Sun, it was clear that the band were still leaning towards seeking out melodic riffs and hooks in their music, whereas on Ascetic they’ve gravitated more naturally towards discordance and jarring sections. This isn’t to say that this album is not catchy or engrossing, far from it; the polished production and the experimentation with its utilisation helps to make this more accessible than your average black metal record without ever losing sight of the fact that the band are aiming to achieve a more belligerent musical approach. If this album is anything to go by in terms of the direction the band is going musically, within the next few years they could very well be one of the foremost acts on black metal’s more disjointed and acerbic fringes.

Rating: 9/10

Ascetic is out now via Transcending Obscurity Records.

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