1000fryd og AKT NULL præsenterer to fremadstormende varianter af europæisk eksperimentalmetal anno 2022; ASHENSPIRE (avant RABM, Glasgow) og ARKÆON (Black Metal, Aarhus).
ASHENSPIRE is an experimental metal group formed in 2013 by Alasdair Dunnand Mitchell Morrison as a means of exploring the contradictions inherent in a contemporary capitalist world. The group presents challenging and abrasive musical textures (making use of sprechgesang, violin and saxophone) in a progressive, post-black metal framework alongside incisive political critique of the historical basis and current state of postmodern life.
Their 2nd full-length, the widely lauded Hostile Architecture (2022) is presented in the context of fascism’s return to mainstream politics, the widening of the inconceivably vast wealth gap between capitalists and the working class, and growing alienation between one another as subjects. A far more explicit and direct message of anticapitalism and embracing of socialist and anarchist principles, it is a demanding listen; taking as much influence from the harsh, angular textures of Altar of Plagues ’Teethed Glory and Injury as Colin Stetson’s hypnotic saxophone and Ed Scissor/Lamplighter’s bleak noir-hop soundscapes, the album sees Ashenspire leaning further into Avant-garde jazz tendencies and black metal dissonance in a more full realisation of their own sprechstimme.
ARKÆON is a black metal power trio consisting of three genre veterans of the more extreme edges of jutlandian metal and experimental music; Christian Søegaard, Antonius Lovmand and Nils Brem, each previously involved in numerous diverse projects including Tongues, Muspellzheimr, Ærkenbrand, NVLVS, Gespenst and many more. The music of ARKÆON is hectic, raw and complex, moving through lengthy experimental compositions seeking to draw out a more extreme, mystical character from the current landscape of danish metal- A frenzied cacophony driven by rapid tempo and anchored by technically refined melodicism. Their debut LP “Parasit” is set for release via I, Voidhanger Records in late 2022.
Channeling the frustration and lovecraftien hopelessness that a society faced with late stages capitalism, ecological collapse and rising mental illness deals with, SHIMMER is a vent for our own desperation, fears and stress. Underlining this bleak messages with droning post metal building to intens crescendos and dizzying blackened death metal, SHIMMER is ment to incapsulate the darker sides of modern living.