The debut full length from Finnish sludge/post metallers Askel, ‘Cycles of Ruin’, follows their eponymous EP debut in 2022 and looks to build on the work they did there. The band describe their sound as sludge but taking a detour through hardcore, black metal and post metal, so that sounds like the recipe for something pretty grim. It is out now self released through Bandcamp.
‘Lethean Thirst’ is a sinister, creeping introduction to the band if you aren’t familiar; uncomfortable static gives way to a crushing bass rumble and even more crushing riffs. If I remember my classic Greek, Lethe was one of the rivers in the underworld, where the dead drank to forget their earthly life. An apt comparison to the thick, black fluidity of the song, miasmic amnesia-inducing riffs and tortured screams howl from the abyss. What a start! The howling shrieks of ‘Denial’ are nerve clutching, while obsidian riffs claw and scratch for room in the cloying brutality. There’s even a little Godflesh creeping into some of the slow motion crush here too, that dissonant almost mechanical grinding guitar is very Broadrick-like. There’s also definite slabs of Primitive Man-style sludge/hardcore power in ‘Temples’ as well, where that Godflesh influence creeps in again. We get a taste of the black metal influence in the closing, scalding ‘Ruin’ as well, blasting through the shifting heaviness.
Discordant, visceral, and tectonic in its movement. ‘Cycles of Ruin’ is a record that will smother you in heaviness and madness. A monolithic expulsion of visceral catharsis, coated in blackened hate and sludgy grime. Askel have really stepped up to the plate here, and if they continue to create music as devastating as this, we could be witness to the rise of a new titan. Stunning.
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