This is the debut album from international black metal band Aset.
Featuring members of Seth and Oranssi Pazuzu, Astral Rape is a 43-minute mystical journey that “blends Egyptian occult rites with a modern and aggressive black metal”, according to the promo blurb.
Aset boast an esoteric aggression that twists and turns with enigmatic intensity. The band have an atmospheric approach to black metal, one that is layered and intricate. The well-crafted music fuses its blackened materials into quality structures that are both sophisticated and visceral, operating via both sharp intelligence and instinctual fury.
Astral Rape benefits from a keen sense of melody, yet this isn’t overblown. Aset keep their melodies in check, using them to underpin emotive soundscapes, rather than drive the music forward with colourful focus as some bands do. These are sinister, eerie, arcane, and sometimes downright creepy. Always though they are infected with an obscure otherworldly feel that elevates the songs to higher levels of existence. Combined with the other aspects of the music it makes for a very mood-based album, despite the frequently withering speed and aggression on display.
Aset’s inscrutable black metal is very moreish and absorbing. The more I listen to Astral Rape, the more I find myself drawn into its rarefied world. It’s an album that grows over time, spreading its dark presence into your unsuspecting mind, urging you to return to hear its dark sermons once more.
For connoisseurs of paranormal black metal that offers a glimpse into the unknown, Aset’s Astral Rape is an easy record to recommend.
Wonderbox Metal 