Ashbringer – We Came Here to Grieve (Review)

This is the fourth album from US post-black metal band Ashbringer.

This is the follow up to 2019’s well-received Absolution, We Came Here to Grieve brings us 44 minutes of new music. On this new record Ashbringer continue to evolve their sound, pushing the envelope further, with a multifaceted mix of experimental black metal sounds. Although having said that, there’s less direct black metal on this album, for sure.

Take Absolution as a starting point, and then simultaneously expand and contract this to include a broader set of influences and styles, and you’ll have a good idea of where this new album is coming from. Across We Came Here to Grieve you will encounter a mix of black metal, post-hardcore, post-rock, sludge, folk, noise, blackgaze, alternative rock, and ambient elements. So, everything then? Almost. It sounds like it might be a mess with those sometimes disparate ingredients, but Ashbringer have the skills to pull it off, for the most part.

We Came Here to Grieve offers a remarkably diverse journey to the listener that ranges across multiple styles and sounds. Ashbringer are clearly not short of ideas, and manage to wrap them all up in a surprisingly coherent package. The album’s sound is raw and harsh, even when it’s not nastily heavy, and it certainly won’t appeal to those that want a supremely polished end product. However, it provides an authentic and idiosyncratic canvas on which Ashbringer paint their varied and textured art.

The songs combine blackened aggression with cinematic scope and an immersive atmospheric presence, while also adopting a more refined approach to songwriting. The record alternates between moments of dark hostility and abrasive heaviness on the one hand, and introspective post-rock, ambient soundscapes, and rich atmospheric depth on the other. Of course, there are also moments that bridge the two sides, showcasing Ashbringer’s delicate sense of thunder at its most detailed, in some cases.

Ashbringer’s latest is a creative work that blends multiple, occasionally competing influences into a melting pot of individuality and character. It’s the sort of release that’s bound to be divisive – especially around some of the clean vocals and production choices – but ultimately delivers the sort of record that grows and grows as you get to know its unconventional and occasionally uneven, (sound-wise), charms. Songwriiting-wise, this is top-drawer stuff.