Aosoth - 'Ashes Of Angels'

Aosoth pick up where Antaeus left off as Ashes of Angels is yet another solid example of French black metal.

Since French black metal masters Antaeus have gone on hiatus with an uncertain future, members of the band have splintered off into various other projects. MkM, the vocalist behind Antaeus, has gone on to form Aosoth (a dark female force in the pantheon of the Order of the Nine Angles), and has now released two full-lengths under the new moniker, the latest being Ashes of Angels on Agonia Records.

Joining MkM in Aosoth is Bestial Satanic T, the nom de guerre of Sebastian Tuvi, formerly a guitarist with Aborted. Tuvi handles all instrumentation on the album and additional session members are employed for live performances.

Ashes of Angels is essentially fast black metal with a very powerful production. A certain amount of rawness is retained to give the album touches of atmosphere and a low-fi sound to the guitar, but the album seethes with ferocity. The fast pace to the music predominates throughout the album, but variety is introduced in the form of tempo changes.

Many of the songs, such as the monstrous title track simply bowl you over with speed and power, but other songs slow things down a bit and allow atmosphere and hints of melody to take over. Case in point is “Path of Twisted Light,” featuring a melodic, yet still raw, guitar and a nice, fluid bass in the background. The pacing on the track is droning, allowing the album’s atmosphere to come to the forefront. These moments of atmosphere are interspersed quite nicely with the album’s more brutal assaults, giving the listener a bit of a respite.

Throughout Ashes of Angels, the musicianship is quite good as would be expected by genre veterans. The songwriting, with the variation, is also good as most of the album is catchy and lacks any obvious filler material. About the only complaint that can be stated is that the album is fairly typical black metal and really doesn’t bring anything new to the table. That’s probably not the point, anyway, as Ashes of Angels ends up as a fine example of black metal and is, therefore, recommended.