Year: 2019
Total Time: 46:14
Label: Edged Circle Productions
This is the second album from this female Black metal band from Holland, after their very good debut ‘Potestas Magicum Diaboli’ in 2017. They seem to love the second wave of Norwegian Black Metal with a modern approach, thrash / black fast tempo with zero use of blastbeats. That’s how their sound could be described. The truth is, that when they released their first album they got many great reviews and feedback so as a black metal band they created big expectations for the future. But have they fulfilled these expectations in “Dawn of Infinite Fire”? The answer unfortunately is no!
The album starts with 3 great songs, ‘They Crawl from the Broken Circle’, ‘The Lightless Inferno’ and ‘Abomination’s Altar’. But from the fourth song and on, the album is getting boring with very mediocre songs. I listened to it many times and after the first 3 tracks and as long as the album continued, I felt the urge to press the stop button from all the lack of interest it boredom I had. Similar albums are released every day by dozens of bands and no matter how much I tried, I couldn’t find something that would make “Dawn of Infinite Fire” stand out. OK it’s a well-played modern Black Metal album with nice vocals, melodies and very good production, but also it is an album that you will playback 2 or 3 times and then you will dump it on a shelf and let it collect dust forever. It’s times like this that you feel so lucky to have the internet to save you from throwing away your money.
I personally believe that ASAGRAUM were rushed, perhaps even forced, to release their second album. Maybe they wanted to redeem their previous success but the result is not so good for them. It is a rather average record which main characteristic is the repeat of ideas and parts. The band seems to have not progressed since “Potestas Magicum Diaboli”, but maybe, they can’t offer us more than that after all.
Rating: 5/10
Nikos Manousis
Related Link: ASAGRAUM – Facebook Page
