This album may be about the area between life and death but this band from the Netherlands decidedly plays black metal.” Façade” is Asgrauw’s fifth album release.
Anger and slashing people with razors is the thought that came into my head as I listened to the opener “Versplinterd Hout” (Splintered Wood). I’d read that this band’s music is for fans of early Dimmu Borgir, early Satyricon, Emperor and Darkthrone. This piece of growly black metal oppression had the mark of very early Dimmu Borgir while they retained some folk element and before becoming symphonic. “Getekend” (Signed) is dark, dirty and imposing. It turns epic and melancholic but before I had the chance to regard it as going soft, a violent and bitter rant ensues, matched by pungent and merciless instrumentals. The ambience is indeed that of Darkthrone. “Zielloos” is a straight, all-out attack, interrupted by a celestial choir before normal working resumes and the harsh vitriolic rant resumes. “Offerande” (Offering) passed me by as it was more of the same. The haunting chorus is a feature and again appears on “Tussen Willen en Kunnen” (something equivalent to the English “Between the Will and the Way”, I believe) but basically this is the same: a good old volley of drums, plenty of noise and firepower and a fiery vocalist who sounds like he hates everybody, or just has serious problems. “Hernemen” (Resume). “As Van De Doden” (Ashes of the Dead) again pack plenty of firepower but like “Offerande” passed me by. By the time of “Levenswaan” (Life Delusion). I was sharing the vocalist’s desperation but probably for a different reason. Packed to the brim with venom, it brings the album to a close.
Asgrauw are not going to win awards for subtlety, not that they would wish to claim any, I’m sure. The plus point of “Façade “is its non-stop intensity, fire and fury. But beyond the fact that it has these qualities, it has that paint-drying effect and really didn’t excite or arouse me at all.
(5/10 Andrew Doherty)
Leave a Reply