I confess that that I didn’t know the band Norse before this release in spite of “Ascetic” being their fourth album. The idea that they play dissonant black metal did appeal to me.

So off we go with the title track. It’s dirty, aggressive, menacing and has shades of the apocalypse about it. Angry voices pour through a black background of hammering noises. “Parasite Warmongers” is slower but no less deadly. To a sound which sounds like an industrial process and constantly triggering drums, the track proceeds slowly through the darkest caverns of pain. Norse know how to create desperate atmospheres. Violent gloom prevails. It’s like a relentless journey in thick fog through murder scenes. The riff of “Fearless Filth Seeker” is hypnotic, and as dead pan as it is, the scene is not still as the obscure sound of terrible and tragic things happen are present around it. This industrial metal sound reminds me of bands like Aborym, Blut aus Nord, Axis of Perdition and Anaal Nathrakh. At times it’s a violent assault. At other times it’s a journey through a hostile world, represented through a form of industrial or apocalyptic post metal style.

The punishing “Accelerated Subversion” moves from heavy industrial doom into even darker worlds as Norse drain us of all hope with this expansive, violent fare. “Radical Depression” changes tone a little with a more minimalist direction. The drum has a gloomy trip-hop edge to it. And on it trips, with the customary sound effects to cause us psychological damage. The negativity continues with “Zero Insight”. The drums trigger, distorted meanderings fill the background while the vocalist with the fiery anger growls through the monstrous violence and gloom. The piece takes an almost shapeless form as it becomes an increasing slog through darkness and hardship. “Blight” suggests as if we’ve hit breaking point as a machine-like noise dominates a scene of chaos and audible suffering. The thunderous wall of sound returns for “Useless”. Fear meets gloom and melancholy, and a sense that nothing is going to change or improve in this downtrodden, dangerous and violent atmosphere.

It’s clear where we stand with this one. There’s not an ounce of positivity. There’s just outright plain blackness, but presented in interesting ways where sounds are exploited to cause psychological fear and pile on audible and visual images of a black and merciless world. It’s very effective.

(8/10 Andrew Doherty)

https://www.facebook.com/norse.official

https://norsebm.bandcamp.com/album/ascetic-dissonant-black-metal