Asenblut – Die Wilde Jagd

Label: AFM Records
Releasedate: 29.05.2020

Founded in 2006, ASENBLUT have been using the last few years to steel themselves, to ripen slowly, to become, piece by piece, the thundering metal armada that is now being drawn into the all-decisive battle. These are dark times. The Fenriswolf howls, the Asen call for the last battle, Ragnarok approaches. It’s time to unleash BERSERKER in us – and ASENBLUT know exactly what it means.

She is back ten years, the founding of ASENBLUT. Much has happened in the army camp of the Göttingen, since they made in 2009 with their debut AUFBRUCH first riot in the domestic Pagan Metal scene. Already in the early days, far more than just another meteoric run, with runes throwing around pathos foolishness, ASENBLUT were from the beginning black metal, thrash, melodic death metal and traditional heavy metal saber rattling welcome in their melodic-clanging sound , According to VON WORTEN UND TATEN (2013) on the third album BERSERKER this development reaches a completely new level. For a name like this but of course no wonder.

On May 29th 2020 their newest incarnation has come to life: “Die Wilde Jagd” (The Wild Hunt) does not disappoint; full of heavy riffs, deep and hoarse vocals and the generally up-tempo nature of their aggressive viking/death/blackened thrash metal are all answering the mythological call.

First thing that you will notice about this album is that all the vocals are grunted in German. So if you have little or no understanding of this language the lyrics are probably wasted on you. The dual pedal drums are up, front and centre throughout, laced with heavy bass riffs and twin guitar play combined with the heavy and hoarse vocals of Tetzel. Somehow this works a treat! Be prepared for a long listen as the shortes track is 4m23s whilst the longest goes past the 6 minute mark.

The titlesong is heavy and fast! Excellent use of all instruments available. From time to time melodic guitarplay makes it the ideal track to kick the album off with.

The next track ‘Codex Gigas’, again is thrashy and heavy – much alike to Amon Amarth. Track 3 ‘Seite and Seite’ (Side by Side) is slightly slower but the heavy bass guitars and drums keep you focused on this track with a nod to viking metal.

The drummer doesn’t seem to be resting at all, on ‘Irminsul’ he is at is like his life depends on it. The combination of vocals, guitars and drums do not differ too much from track to track and as such it – kind of – sound all the same.

The intro of the fifth track ‘Drachtöter’ (Dragon slayer) was a bit of a surprise. Nice and slow, a proper intro! Well for about 40 seconds until all the guitars, bass and drums kick in at a very high pace. Typing this whilst listening to this track makes me want to keep up with the tempo, which is virtually impossible!

‘Penumbra’, ‘Weder Gott noch Könige’ (Neither God or Kings), ‘Wolfshunger’ and ‘300’ continue the trend from all the previous tracks, nothing new really. Shame as I expected more differentiation.

The last track is an extended version of ‘Seite an Seite’, not very different from the version which was track 3 albeit this one is 1m10s longer.

For me personally this was a bit of a gamble as I tend not to go for this kind of metal – a little too extreme and I like to be able to hear the vocals. All in all a decent album and – sort of – enjoyed listening and reviewing Asenblut’s newest album ‘Die Wilder Jagd’.

Line up:

Tetzel (vocals)
Claus Cleinkrieg (guitar)
Yuri (guitar)
Deimos (bass)
Balrogh (drums)

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