Enthroned are a black metal band from Belgium and this is their twelfth album.
Following on from 2014’s Sovereigns and 2019’s Cold Black Suns, a new Enthroned album has now appeared on the horizon. Ashspawn boasts 50 minutes of new music from Enthroned, and it has not disappointed.
Ashspawn is an album of grim ferocity and sinister occult atmosphere. It essentially carries on from where Cold Black Suns left off, which is fine by me.
The songs are well-developed and designed to inflict maximum daemonic violence on the listener. Enthroned unleash a sonic Hellstorm that sits somewhere between Marduk and Mayhem, with a touch of Behemoth lurking around the edges. Within this simplistic description, Ashspawn is finely wrought and immaculately rendered; that Enthroned have spent a good deal of energy on this material becomes apparent over time. The songs look deceptively straightforward on first glance, but actually there’s quite a lot going on here. Ashspawn is an album that grows in potency the more you get to know it. It has a selection of obvious assets that make for an enjoyable first listen, but it’s after multiple spins that Enthroned’s hard work in piecing the record together becomes clear.
Ashspawn offers a satisfying and engaging listen. It’s not an album of hooks, but rather of furious immersive atmosphere and mood-focused darkness. My only minor quibble is the volume of the vocals, which are a bit high in the mix for my tastes. However, it’s hard to fault the singer’s performance, and I became used to this production choice surprisingly quickly. His voice is strong and passionately delivered throughout, much like the music as a whole.
This is the black metal equivalent of easy listening for me, despite the complexities, detailing, and involved nature of some of the songs. It’s effortless to just stick on Ashspawn and get lost in its dark, malefic corridors.
A new Enthroned album is always something I’ll want to pay attention to, and Ashspawn has hit the mark.
Very highly recommended.
Wonderbox Metal 