Album Review: Ashen Tomb - Ecstatic Death Reign
Reviewed by Sam Jones
It’s time to traverse the North Sea and careen our gaze towards Finland and relative newcomers to extreme metal, Ashen Tomb, with their first full length album titled Ecstatic Death Reign. Formed in 2021 out of Helsinki, Ashen Tomb got to work pretty quickly with their first Single a year later and by the end of 2022 had already signed on to Godz Ov War Productions for their self-titled EP. This partnership endured during a Split with Sepulchral Curse though the band parted ways from them shortly after. However with a new Single, and soon news of a full length in the pipeline, Ashen Tomb eventually found themselves signed on to Everlasting Spew Records which is where Ecstatic Death Reigns has made its new home. Primed for an October 18th release date, Ashen Tomb are poised to show legions of prospective fans what they’re made of and I may certainly be one of them.
What struck me right out of the gate was how light Ashen Tomb’s production felt upon the senses. It’s clear the band know how to bring the intensity along to their songwriting for they play with a rapid tempo that will see you attempt to keep up with the frantic pace they perform with, yet that hasn’t translated into a production that’s keeping you subjugated at every given moment either. Ecstatic Death Reign is an extremely light, nigh on weightless, experience that while feels as dense as a summer day’s cloud, still hits with blunt force impact of a runaway freight train. It goes to show that, done right, and through careful mixing, you can craft a death metal record that doesn’t need to slaughter its listeners to the nth degree in order for the band to grab your attention. In fact it’s nicely refreshing to know the band aren’t out to kill your ears. You still need and desire to pay attention to what the band are doing, but at no instance do Ashen Tomb imply you need to work for what they’ve done planned for you. There’s never this idea that you have to somehow earn the band’s love through enduring a suffocating production standard; the band merely give you what they’ve written and have thus decided it’s best digested with a very light touch.
The vocals Ashen Tomb demonstrate are some of the most guttural yet powerful I’ve heard in a while. Whilst much of Ashen Tomb’s songwriting is concerned with faster, more vigorous displays of speed, the vocals like to stick to a particular tempo and honestly that works within the confines of their band’s chemistry since we can always rely on the vocals to keep us grounded and brought down to earth. The depths their frontman can bring his vocals to are impressive for not only does he showcase control on his more sustained notes but the power he can still infer with them as his pitch climbs slightly. Listening to the delivery it’s far from one note though it seemingly doesn’t move in any direction too wildly; the vocals are able to switch up their timbre now and again so it’s not always the same kind of gruff or bellowing performance. The vocals themselves move in and out of the guttural performance pending on what the delivery requires in conjunction with the instrumentation and the songwriting, so you can get vocals that suddenly climb to a coarse roar before declining rapidly into these super deep intonations that accompany the band’s more blistering sequences of guitar and blast beats.
Most of all throughout the songwriting, I think the riffs hit us as hard as they do in spite of the light production quality because the bass is so prominent within the mix. With that said, the bass is hardly dominating the band’s performance; it’s not like the bass guitar vies for endless appraisal or chases the spotlight at every turn. It’s always there and audible and visible within the makeup of the band as they play and it’s how closely it follows the route the main riffs play out with. If a riff follows a certain shape you’ll be confident the bass isn’t far behind, mimicking its path to some extent so the record, as light a production as it wields, feels far bigger than you may expect it to be. The lack of pressure placed upon our senses, and upon the band’s own performance in the mix, enables every iota of their soundscape to flow and breathe and reach us undiluted, which means the band’s performance comes to us completely unmuddied. Therefore, there’s nothing obstructing the bass from supporting fully the guitar’s primary riff work.
Because the record has been mixed together in such a way that it’s been rendered with a light touch, it never feels overwhelming when the band unload everything they have at you at once. They can be hurling blast beats, the vocal work, huge swathes of riffs and basslines your way in small and concentrated pockets that climb with increasing aggression, and it never feels like they need to dial it down somewhat since the record has made allowances for the band to undergo this approach without it backfiring in their faces. The band have the option to throw everything but the kitchen sink at you and they can do just that without running the risk of losing some of their songwriting or impact in the process. If anything you want them to keep attempting to kill you since their soundscape takes on a fully encompassing aesthetic; rather than target one specific part of you, Asher Tomb opt for a more encapsulating, binding onslaught that sees their performance totally envelop and imprison you, and it doesn’t take long for the effect to take shape. You’ll be fist bumping the air, playing air guitar, you’ll be utterly breathless by the time each ensuing track is done before you’re lining up the next. The band already have a mastery of the listening experience under their belt.
In conclusion, Ashen Tomb could not have written a stronger and more blinding first album release with Ecstatic Death Reign. Finland is revered for its exemplary death metal outputs and already it seems Ashen Tomb shall be joining their multitudinous ranks for this is one fiery, bombastic record. With every member having prior experience already in previous bands both studio and live you can tell these guys know what they’re doing, for everything from the mix to riffs to songwriting bleeds competence. Ecstatic Death Reign doesn’t even surpass forty minutes in length but I feel like it manages to convey more in that time than records beforehand have tried to do with an hour. It’s able to simultaneously feel massively sprawling and open, so much so the band can stretch their arms fully wide and still have scores of room left over, but still feel so tightly wound that the songwriting and performance on record feels like it’s the only way Ecstatic Death Reign could have possibly turned out as. The ease of listening to this album also aids the band immensely since there’s no grand pressure placed on our shoulders, moving from one track to the next is so easy and owing to the band’s relentless pace it’s an adrenaline surge that’s genuine and will you freely, willingly indoctrinated towards their soundscape in no time at all. This is as wonderful a first full length record could be for any band. Watch out for Ashen Tomb.
