Well I never! I got this disc just as I started to pack for my summer holiday. Every time I pack up, I prepare some books to read on my Kindle, and this year I have resolved to try and read a lot of pulp 30’s and 40’s fantasy books – such as the Conan stories. How apt then that I received this disc from Italian one-man band Ascia (which means “Axe” in Italian), the brain-child of Black Capricorn musician Fabrizio Monni.
The first thing that struck me on listening to “The Wandering Warrior” was just how familiar it sounded. Like a blend of the more infectious parts of Conan (the band), High on Fire and the doomier aspects of The Sword, this record is about cleaving skulls with axes, playing riffs that linger long in the memory, and a down and dirty bass sound that’s fuzzier than your mum’s gusset.
What’s particularly nice about the bestial and barbaric tales of auditory bastardry presented here, is although the doom is as you might expect – slow, bass-heavy and pretty nasty – none of the songs feel like a dragged out slog. At the most of the ten songs here, none really penetrate the 6 minute mark significantly, and most weigh in around the 4 minute space. This means that Ascia manage to produce a decent couple of riffs per song, show case them against the savage bass sound and war-drums, and then move on to the next song. It’s an efficient approach that I really appreciate, especially as – very fond of doom as I am – I do tend to get a bit irritated by songs that outlast their welcome.
Is this the most ground-breaking album of all time? Perhaps not, but then what it absolutely manages to do within the confines of the style is really impressive, and at times addictive. The stand out track for me is “The Path of Eternal Glory”, which manages to somehow meld the caveman basic pummelling of the afore-mentioned Conan, but with the kind of Rock influences that Motorhead displayed on songs like “Deaf Forever”. Fabrizio’s vocals are very well suited to the music here, being a relatively high pitched clean voice that doesn’t grate, but instead has enough personality to become one of the better features of the record.
Finally, to mention that the whole album was written, played, recorded, mixed by Fabrizio himself, which is incredible, given how good this damn thing sounds. He even did the evocative artwork.
Music to read Conan stories by? That’ll do nicely.
(7.5/10 Chris Davison)
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