ALBUM REVIEW: World Shaker – Asomvel

Six years on from the release of their previous record Knuckle Duster, British metallers ASOMVEL are back with their new album World Shaker. In that time the band have had a new bassist and drummer, Ralph and Jani Pasanen respectively, with the former taking up vocal duties as well.

World Shaker kicks things right off with the title track, and right from the opening second ASOMVEL gives the listener a strong insight of exactly what’s to come from the rest of the album. There isn’t a gentle opening track or a drawn-out intro; World Shaker just goes straight for the jugular, the bass giving an essence of ROYAL BLOOD in the opening few seconds. The riffs and percussion follow soon enough, and Ralph really fits the bill of a heavy metal front man. The band take inspiration from a lot of the classic heavy metal bands, such as JUDAS PRIEST, but in the vocals there is very much a sound reminiscent of the legendary MOTӦRHEAD front man, Lemmy. The track doesn’t run for more than two and a half minutes but its hard, fast, aggressive, and a killer opening song.

The following track True Believer follows a pretty similar path to the opening track in terms of sound and structure, though there seems to be a bit more emphasis on the bass, and the pace slightly notches up with some more high tempo solos. True Believer gives the listener another sense of what World Shaker is capable of with ASOMVEL establishing their own style in the opening two tracks. There is some variation further into World Shaker, such as Runnin’ The Gauntlet. This time the emphasis is much more flipped onto the guitar while the bass takes a bit more of a backseat, and the chorus is more drawn out – it’s a track you can imagine the crowd will be echoing back at a live show and is a tad more gentle compared to the other tracks at this point.

There isn’t anything crazy or overly complicated in what ASOMVEL have done in World Shaker. The band have gathered all the basic ingredients for a classic heavy metal record, put them together and delivered a solid album. It’s relatively simple but if it’s not broken don’t fix it, and it’s because of this that ASOMVEL have delivered arguably one of the best albums to come out in 2019 thus far. If you love that classic heavy metal sound and are looking for a bit of nostalgia, then this is one to add to your record collection.

Rating: 9/10

World Shaker is out now via Heavy Psych Sounds. 

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