Okay, a collaboration going on here between Swedish and English death metallers... At first I thought it was Rogga Johansson of... no, my computer runs out of memory before I could type half of his bands here... Anyway, it is not him, but another SDM musician who works his ass off: Jonny Pettersson (vocals, guitar, bass). I do not know all of his voluminous work, but Vholdghast. Another guy is English fellow Gareth Nash (vocals, lead guitar and probably the progenitor of the band), a totally new acquaintance to me. What the heck, but to dive into Ashcloud head-first, then?!?! Remember to grab that respirator mask...

The first thing that hits is the cavernous sound. It has its pros and cons here. The kick drum gets seriously quilted under echoing everything else. Or then my hearing frequencies are blasted... I don't believe that, because when heard, the bass drum is slapping like hell. Bad production there. On the other hand, left hand side, what else, we get fantastically atmospheric, gravey vibes. This tomb is a big cavern with hella lot of skeletal remains, nothing less, even though this quite isn't the most cavernous I've heard. The lead guitar sounds nasty and buzzsawy, making one's ears bleed, together with hissing hi-hat which might get totally obnoxious. The drumming offers heavy death metal beats and variety of mainly fast skank beats. The snare drum sounds like a huge rubbery, tightly stretched membrane. At least the drums are real, performed by session guy Fredrijk Van Daaten. The rhythm guitar has bassy Sunlight Studios tone to it, so it can sound like a big wall, too. The distorted and heavy bass guitar handles rhythm guitar parts, more like, and is played in style of legendary Motörhead bassist, Lemmy. Fuck, does it do boosts?! This album will fuck your ears and your mind, that's for sure, carving a hole of its shape into your head.

Gruesome and eerie melodiousness becomes tangible right from the start, thanks to non-distorted guitar licks of 'Under dödens vingar (Pt.1)' ("under death's wings") which guides listener to this death-trip. Intense riffage, which begins on the second song and is very similar to old Entombed, Carnage and Dismember (not only sound-wise, mind), obfuscates the kick drum. The next song introduces that familiar melancholic yet morbid Swedish melodiousness on the slab, often utilized by Grave and Desultory for example (and so often backed by a voluminous wall-sounding power chord). The last song features haunting lead guitar, which highly reminds of, wait for it, Japanese Sigh's ghastly tunes of evil. But generally Ashcloud really do not do anything new, like hundreds and hundreds of bands inspired by old Swedish death metal stylings. Even though there's an English guy behind this, I cannot spot any Carcass or Bolt Thrower, or any other English band's influencing touch on this one. But at least a Japanese one...

There are two vocal styles, including shrieky growl capable of deep brain-drilling, and rotten throat voice that zombies might make if they could speak. They are taking turns, but also often combined. Echo, the echo... It sounds like the vocals are presented from a skeletal terrace on cave wall, by unholy popes of Deatholic religion.

At first the platter might give an impression of being rather unique, but it really isn't. It does have character of its own to some extent, for sure, and should be inspected by the fans of old Swedish death metal. This really is a fun trip down the memory lane, spotting all (possible) inspirations behind any part. I can smell miasma now, so job well done.

Rating: 7½ (out of 10) ratings explained

Reviewed by Lane
12/02/2020 18:14