Reaping Asmodeia: Transcending The Struggle
In 2021, death metal is a vibrant and thriving ecosystem. A multi-faceted hotbed of bands, all of varying decrees of brutality and technicality, metal’s most visceral genre has come a long way since its incendiary origins near four decades ago. Now is as good as ever to really make your mark in a thriving scene and since their formation eight years ago, Minneapolis, Minnesota trio REAPING ASMODEIA have caught attention thanks to the multifaceted and dazzling approach to technical-leaning death metal.
“We want to show that REAPING ASMODEIA is still out here grinding away!” Drummer Daniel Koppy tells us when we probe what they hope to achieve with their latest effort Darkened Infinity. “We would love to have this album reach a wider audience than our previous releases. There are tons of yet-to-be “reapers” out there and we’re gonna find ‘em!”
Find them they will, across Darkened Infinity‘s runtime, REAPING ASMOEDIA showcases a natural knack for slick aural brutality and a potency for unleashing musical technicality that will blow the mind. But the road hasn’t been straightforward. Having streamlined the personnel alongside refining their sound since 2017’s Impuritize, Daniel explains that despite the turmoil of the last four years, the band are in a much stronger stead in the here and now. “We have gone through a condensing of members. It has required us to step up our focus and execution in the most efficient way possible. Musically our tastes have grown more diverse. This allowed us to write some of our most dynamically charged music yet. With this album, we aimed to retain the heavy and dynamic sound we have always brought and we feel like we accomplished that. We like to describe this album as technically driven storytelling.”
Technically driven storytelling is the perfect line to describe Darkened Infinity. If you can put aside the dizzying technical death metal, for just a moment, and dig a little deeper, the context behind REAPING ASMODEIA‘s latest effort is much more grandiose than you’d initially expect. A conceptual story of transcendence, consciousness and a deep dive into humanity’s turmoil of the psychological self, the band are asking the big questions with their newest release.
“There are bits of astral projection through dreams, as well as enlightenment and ascension with a dark twist. We touch on multiverses and connect the human psyche with the ever present duality that sentience and metaphysics seem to intertwine, exploring the downfall and triumphs of the human experience and how they may affect more planes of existence outside our own,” Daniel explains when we probe about the overarching theme behind the record. “That we may be destroyers, yet also pioneers at the same time. Finding birth and beauty in death and destruction is a topic we often write about. The album starts and ends with the phrase ‘the consequence of being’. Initially thinking of a consequence in negative connotations especially when paired with a tragedy, but as our main character ascends past our realm in death, enlightenment and knowledge drive this phrase into its true meaning. Happiness and enlightenment are not something to be obtained, they are merely ‘the consequence of being’.”
Having a deep and expansive theme is one thing, but if you don’t have the music to back it up then it will be nothing more than a flash in the pan. Luckily for Daniel and REAPING ASMODEIA, Darkened Infinity is a musically exquisite. Given the sheer technicality of the music on offer, would Daniel agree that this goes hand in hand with the overarching concept?
“Absolutely!” He exclaims. “We approached this album very differently than any of our previous material. Mainly for the fact that this offering was created to form a concept piece, both musically and thematically. We constructed the music almost in a film score sense. We had a good outline of the story and roughly what we wanted to do with the album in a musical sense very early on. Once we started outlining the types of atmosphere and feel we wanted from each song and story piece, the music began to really take on what we hoped it would be in the end.”
As death metal continues to enjoy the fruits of its golden age, for REAPING ASMODEIA, they can rest assured that Darkened Infinity is yet another solid addition to the genre that seems to show no signs of slowing down. They say that the third album can the making or breaking of a band, and for this trio, it looks set to be their making. “We definitely feel this is the strongest we’ve sounded both musically and lyrically! I think as much as we consciously approached the creative process of this album differently, it very much was a natural progression for us. We always want to widen our lyrical and musical scope, so the idea of attempting to execute something slightly new to our music is always there.”
The path may have been long-winded and full of terrors, but REAPING ASMODEIA have transcended above the struggle and have cemented their place as one of death metal’s most killer new names.
Darkened Infinity is out now via Prosthetic Records.
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