Gronspech

Four years have passed since the last time i came across the music of Asgauw from the Netherlands. Since their first release, that it made a good impression to me, they have released their second full length album, Krater in 2016, while in 2017 they released a split album with Meslamtaea. In the summer (July) of 2018 they released their latest full length album, called Gronspech which contains nine compositions and it lasts for about fifty minutes. The album is released by Hidden Marly Production, which is a label from Japan, into limited number of 1000 copies.

So, now, Asgrauw continues from where they left off in 2014, in the same harsh, Scandinavian style. In this album too, the punk and Motorhead influences are everywhere and they change to harsh, frozen riffs. In various parts, the feeling is very close to DSBM sound and the variation of the expressed feelings is intense, they offer us a journey from a frozen, empty feeling, to a situation of heavy melancholy and from there, with their rhythmic punk changes, we go from catatonia to full energy and passion which escalates into anxiety and violence, with the fast Scandinavian riffs. The band has worked their sound a lot, all these years and the progress they have made is obvious. Their compositions, although they are quite quite long concerning their duration (5-6 minutes), they do not become tedious and they achieve to deliver to the listener the sentiments, the situations and the imagery that they create.

The is minimal and quite clean. The sound is clean but at the same time harsh and very cold, even into the rhythmic parts. The mixture is good, trying to deliver a quite clean result and to make all instrument audible, except of the bass which is quite lowered in the mix. The drums do not have complicated line, they are played with accuracy and passion, without any mistakes, they fill the sound nicely and they give the power that the compositions need. They guitars are harsh and frozen, they deliver the riffs with a lot of passion and accuracy. The band has two vocalists, the one of them has a harsh, violent voice while the other one has a high pitched one. This variation into the vocals, present a more interesting approach and give variety to the compositions while they deliver the different feelings easily.

With Gronspech, the progress achieved as also the hard work done by Asgauw becomes obvious, maintaining the elements that we discovered when we first met them. For sure, this is not an album which will be distinguished for its originality or its special character, but it will satisfy the listener who wants to listen to traditional, harsh Black Metal. It worth to listen to it.