Album Review: Ashen Crown – Obsolescence

Album Review: Ashen Crown - Obsolescence
Reviewed by Neil Brannagan-Fuller

If you’d asked me in the early 1990’s what two places on this planet continuously turn out quality Death Metal Bands, I’d of answered Florida and the West Midlands! A gross generalisation maybe, but a stereotype that bands like Ashen Crown have to live up to!

From the Birmingham stomping grounds of old school death metal acts like Bolt Thrower, Benediction, Cerebral Fix and Memoriam, Ashen Crown are all set to ensure that stereotype continues to be fact! And to keep their forward momentum, and to make sure they are mentioned in such exalted circles, they unleash their first album, a powerful and uncompromising slice of modern death metal entitled ‘Obsolescence’ on the 1st November.

Obsolescence takes the bands three years of maturity, growth, line-up changes and extensive gigging, including a 2017 Bloodstock festival New Blood appearance, and delivers a rock solid punch in the death metal gut.

The eight tracks reflect this level of growth and offer a journey for the listener with the varying symphonic melodies and tempos, whilst opener ‘Unbroken Faith’ starts about as traditional as they come, with church bells and priestly chanting. Tracks like ‘Blood Beneath Us’ and ‘Ultimatum’ will turn the mosh pit into a swirling maelstrom of bodies, and songs like ‘Right to Rise’ and ‘Crimson Sea’ instantly engorge the neck muscles in anticipation of the head banging assault that is likely to follow, but to mix things up further the final track ‘Under The Leaves’ changes the norm and portrays a sad and sombre mood nearly with a Black Sabbath tinged melody threaded within the death chords.

In all, Ashen Crown have created a modern death metal album with enough old school elements to convince the purists that they are worthy of carrying the death metal flag but with enough modern influences to keep the genre from stagnating.

Ashen Crown release 'Obsolescence' on 1st November.