Arson Cafe: Afsky - Om hundrede år Review

Thursday, March 16, 2023

Afsky - Om hundrede år Review

This project has taken significant traction already from its first steps with 2015's self-titled EP, and the first two -especially the second- full length albums, Sorg in 2018 and Ofte jeg drømmer mig død in 2020, have had considerable success with the audience. Afsky's atmospheric black metal is strongly emotional, wreaks of despair and elegantly expresses its melancholic beauty so much with its moving works, as well as the catered lyrical themes and artworks.

The new record Om hundred år maintains the same path with a masterful front cover by Kris Verwimp, reminiscent of the project’s style, and it has the music to go along with it. With a semi-dusty, organic sound, Afsky do not lose track of the goal in this newest release, which still blisters with wonderful atmospheric / depressive black metal, filled with gripping, expressive guitar melodies and harrowing vocals. Mostly present are middle-paced pieces, with an addition of faster, more intensified moments and extra usage of wonderful acoustic guitar parts, especially as connection points between parts of compositions.

A point where Om hundred år really flourishes is the memorability of the tracks, as most of them have quite clearly articulated riffs, but also the overall feelings remain after the listening session is through. At the same time, it doesn’t last forever, just at 43 minutes instead of a more unnecessarily elaborate release, which could be the case for atmospheric black metal. Opening track “Stormfulde has” contains all the aforementioned elements highlighted, and such notable points can be identified all over the album, which is well-written and flows smoothly.

For me personally, Afsky’s performances are usually on point and stand out from the pack, up to a certain level of admiration which, however, doesn’t overshoot to extreme heights. During the record’s more repetitive moments, or the abrupt section changes from one to the next, there lies a little opportunity for improvement for this project, but such a flaw is minor and almost invisible when in the mood to fully let yourself embrace the experience. Om hundrede år is a fine atmospheric black metal release, by now characteristic of Afsky and will be cherished, which is in itself an accomplishment.

Out on March 15th, 2023 / Vendetta Records

DAMAGE: 3.5/5 [Great]

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Reckoning

From all the hills came screams. A piece of sky beside the crescent sun was detaching. It was a loosened circle of evening sky, suddenly lighted from the back. It was an abrupt black body out of nowhere; it was a flat disk; it was almost over the sun. That is when there were screams. At once this disk of sky slid over the sun like a lid. The sky snapped over the sun like a lens cover. The hatch in the brain slammed. Abruptly it was dark night, on the land and in the sky. In the night sky was a tiny ring of light. The hole where the sun belongs is very small. A thin ring of light marked its place. There was no sound. The eyes dried, the arteries drained, the lungs hushed. There was no world. We were the world’s dead people rotating and orbiting around and around, embedded in the planet’s crust, while the earth rolled down. Our minds were light-years distant, forgetful of almost everything.