Asgrauw - Oorsprong

Asgrauw continue to ride their ‘2 year’ release train as they spit forth album number six entitled “Oorpsrong,” perhaps their most ‘teased’ album based upon the amount of singles they released building up to it. For those who don’t know, this three piece from the Netherlands crank out a rather cold, but melodic style of Black Metal that is similar to very early Old Man’s Child mixed with a bit of Waitain and even Pestilent Hex. The guitars are definitely the highlight of this group along with the keyboards which create that harsh yet mystical aura that will harken back to the “Dark Medieval Times” days but with better production. In the past Asgrauw did have a bit of cringe to the dual vocal approach- one barking/ spoken word and the other screeching like Striborg’s Donal Duck style, but it seems over the last few albums they’ve gotten better since 2020, so hopefully time has treated them better and better the last few years. It seems with each album they’ve refined their song structure more to cut out the filler and create just that right song length that is harsh, yet melodic, has plenty of keyboard atmosphere and all that right level of Norwegian ‘evil’ to it.

Right from the starting ‘Komische Strijd’ it is clear the band has opted for even more melody this time around once the guitars sound off, but the band seems to even have opted for near spacey industrial touches with many of the tracks with the opening samples used to lure listeners in. The guitars from Vaal are certainly clearer and less distorted and while despite the bass being still buried from Kaos from the drums by Batr, the symphonic sea is every supportive without being too ‘flowery gothic’ and seems even stronger this time around. Other tracks like ‘Weeral’ have the slow march melodic approach to the riffs that will definitely remind listeners of something off Watain’s “Lawless Darkness” as it creeps along without really having that blistering ‘kvlt’ style, but the flow is well done between all the members, especially on the vocal front as the trade off is more smooth and seems less random. The shouts/ barking have their harsh qualities closer to Ex Deo than that of Behemoth so it is more understandable and distinguishable from the typical Black Metal styled shrieks, which still are bit abrasive in their Donald Duck style, but still sound better than they did back in 2020.

While “Oorsprong” feels like many of the song introductions stumble a bit or seem random (like the introduction to ‘Redres’), the overall song structure and quality marks improvement. While the songs feel like they tend to all stick to the same mid pace- or maybe just seems a bit slower and lighter due to the keyboards which have certainly been put more into play than before- whether one is hearing ‘Erfenis’ which has its Immortal styled rythms versus the much faster Marduk driven frenzy of ‘Apada’ once one gets past the random introduction- the music always sits comfortably with the ears. Fans of Melodeath or Meloblack will certainly appeal to how this band has grown out the frigid sound that populated much of their pre 2020 work and even enjoy the drums for once which have more thunder to them and less of that hissing, hollow click that populated a lot of the early 90s Black Metal albums. While this certainly no overly polished release like “In Sorte Diaboli,” “Oorsprong” is vocally and instrumentally better than what Asgrauw have put out so far to date, and while some might be sad there are no 8 minute epics here, sometimes less is more as the band fleshes out some pretty impressive passages of Melodic Black Metal.

3 / 5 STARS