ALBUM REVIEW: Firebrands & Ashes – Crom Dubh
Not content to let anyone question their mantle as one of the strongest underground extreme metal labels in the world, Ván Records are back with another dose of sonic extremity to add to their ever-growing catalogue. This time, the label is dropping the sophomore album from London black metallers CROM DUBH, Firebrands & Ashes, the follow up to their 2015 debut Heimweh. But with the label’s catalogue for 2019 alone already stacked, never mind black metal as a whole this year, can CROM DUBH cut through the noise?
The sinister, atmosphere-building Boreal serves as a fine intro track before Firebrands & Ashes‘ title track hits home, getting the folky black metal offering into full swing. It’s here we see CROM DUBH both at their strongest, and showcasing the major downfalls of their second offering. The title track slaps in hard with a classic tremolo riff, complete with perfectly chilled production and tortured vocals that carry the track through its opening moments. So far, so grim. But when CROM DUBH start to drop folk-metal-oriented riffs and motifs that feel a little too jovial for the misery-drenched bulk of the song, things become a bit more confusing. Folk and black metal have always been genres that go hand in hand, but here, the execution just doesn’t work as it should, detracting from the dark emotions the band established so well initially.
Lead single Last Dust hits the mark that Firebrands & Ashes‘ title track missed. Here, CROM DUBH manage to wonderfully maintain the sonic darkness throughout the six-and-a-half-minute run time, creating some incredible black metal riff work that injects one of the album’s few moments of serious memorability. Immediate highlight Ram In A Thicket crams its just shy of ten-minute run time with some of the best black metal to come from the UK in years, with wonderful second-wave guitar work, tinges of melody, and hooks a-plenty. Arguably the strongest track CROM DUBH have put to tape, Ram In A Thicket also serves to be a frustration, showcasing just how strong they are when they hit the mark, but unfortunately highlighting that the majority of Firebrands & Ashes fails to achieve the same giddy heights.
Burning takes a more melodic, stomping approach, turning the tempo down a notch but, again, sadly failing to rise to anything stronger than solid. Meanwhile, Firebrands & Ashes shortest song proper, Astride The Grave, takes advantage of its trimmed down run time to deliver a gut punch of misery-drenched, blackened fury – through certain riffs are repeated a little too often, much of Firebrands & Ashes‘ penultimate track shows the band at their strongest. Alongside Ram In A Thicket, and to a lesser extent Last Dust, Astride The Grave shows just how much CROM DUBH are capable of when they fire on all cylinders. Closing track Endless Night feels like the perfect metaphor for Firebrands & Ashes as a whole: throughout the nine-and-a-half minute finisher, CROM DUBH deliver moments of borderline perfection, however these moments are marred by solid but forgettable bulk.
In a vacuum, Firebrands & Ashes is brilliant. Though the record is lacking in memorability and suffering a little bit from an identity crisis, overall there’s little else to bemoan about the Londoner’s brand of folk-tinged, old-school black metal. Unfortunately, however, Firebrands & Ashes doesn’t exist in a vacuum. For all the strength the album carries, CROM DUBH just don’t quite manage to match up to some of the game-changing releases in their genre thus far this year. However, this is a clear step in the right direction from their debut album, and when CROM DUBH hit their stride they deliver nothing short of excellence. It would be criminal to suggest there isn’t a huge display of potential from CROM DUBH here – the final product just misses the mark ever-so-slightly.
Rating: 7/10
Firebrands & Ashes is out now via Ván Records.
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