Aspidium - Harmagedon

It is really funny how releases seem to be organized by theme and date. However the tortuous way, some dates seem to concentrate some themes related to the releases. Of course it seems to be the deal with important religious, national, or other rather important dates. Well, for our review’s sake this early April seems to be the day of moody and atmospheric Black Metal releases for the the releases in role that are on this sonance. Aspidium with “Harmagedon” is one of them.

Though the general sonance of “Harmagedon” is of a Modern Black Metal drive using slow tempos with mesmerizing riffing, this album sounds a bit old school due to the raw instrumental atmosphere the band gives to it. The fan will notice in “Gleichschritt Marsch” there are moments of complex and intricate constructions together with simple and sloppy features. Take for instance the main guitar riff which sounds roughly played embedded with a rather complex double-bass drumming. The same happens with following track “Tödliche Begierde,” but not at the same degree. However, the use of the machine gun drumming embedded with the slow guitar playing makes such an effect. On the other hand, the bass lines are pretty interesting and of an intricate and complex playing. The bass here does much more than only the key chord giving the songs a more aggressive tone. “Scheinwelt” shows pretty much this effect by combining slow and intentional sloppy guitar riffing with double-bass drumming. The outcoming is a foreboding atmosphere that creeps the fan. Noteworthy is that Aspidium build up their songs to reach a grand dramatic peak as in some opera acts. And again, there are no guitar solos which is another feature that connects the band with the old school black metalling by aligning it to a more hardcore drive. But if the fan pay close attention, “Falscher Prophet” has some drumming fillings and changes of tempos that are really hard to follow supporting what I said about the intentional sloppy guitar playing. The thing is that the guitar sometimes follows the melody and that’s what gives this impression.

“Harmagedon” was planned and done to be a the Black Metal version of a cult. The songs are oriented to sound as if they were part of a black mass or anything related. So the fan can expect an album full of dense and dark atmospheres mixed with some more aggressive moments – in general the peak.

Aspidium “Harmagedon” was released on April 18th.

Track Listing: