The mission is straightforward: to create pure Satanic black metal with a 90s feel and dark psychedelic influences. This is the band’s third album.

It’s not long before Asagraum is spewing fire and filth. The dismal riff and hard-hitting drum make up the template. Echoes and tempo changes give “Ignem Puritat Lilitu” added momentum, with a haunting verse towards the end adding further atmospheric fuel. “Fearless Dominance” is more fire and brimstone, its dismal and withering riff line seeming to represent grey devastation. On vocals, Obscura continues to emit bile. After a short interlude track, the creeping “De Verloren Tijd” (The Lost Time) fills the air. A distant voice behind a sinister background gives way to an explosion, but it is short lived as Asagraum launch into a song of stretched out pain and gloom. It’s a good counter to the furious black metal which could have dominated the album, and it’s certainly atmospheric.

The drums are blasting once more as “Impure Fire” is rammed down our throat. There’s an interesting distortion from the guitars. The song picks up pace and the scary venom intensifies. It’s all out war. It is old school in style. The bands I thought of when listening to this were Immortal, Gehennah and Enthroned. Towards the end it breaks away into a passage of emptiness but one feels the clouds building up with the hard drums and controlled fury. The title song which follows then picks up the pace, as the instrumentals and Obscura’s vocals rasp malevolence and overpowering dominance. Another gloomy instrumental filler “Opus Ad Aeternum” follows and precedes the closing track “de Waanzin Roept Mijn Naam” (Madness Calls my Name). The guitar sound hangs in the air like a guillotine as Obscura preaches nastiness. Dark and moody, this was for me the most atmospheric track of the album, and a strong one on which to finish.

There was no secret about Asagraum playing black metal. “Veil of Death, Ruptured” has all the features that you would expect. So anyone who is familiar with old school black metal won’t find anything new here, but the band does a good job of transforming tempo and mood as far as possible so that the album remains interesting.

(6.5/10 Andrew Doherty)

https://www.facebook.com/asagraum

https://edgedcircleproductions.bandcamp.com/album/veil-of-death-ruptured