Ash Borer - The Irrepassable Gate

Ash Borer are a California based Black Metal band who've been at it for a few years now.  Now when it comes to Metal and it's so many different sub-genres, I get really picky, but I've always been a sucker for Black Metal.  The crushing atmospheres and brutal vocal performances are just everything I look for in Metal, not to mention Black Metal always has this seemingly grandness and epic sound that I go nuts for.  Now, Ash Borer are based in California, but they sound just as soul crushing as any famous European Black Metal band you can think of.  What instantly took me about their first album, 2012's "Cold Of Ages" was just the hulking mass of everything here.  The tracks here were long, but all of them were justified, as Ash Borer seriously took us on some wild Black Metal journeys.  The vocals on "Descended Lamentations" and, the angelic background of "Convict All Flesh", and  the hulking mass of "Phantoms" were just what I wanted to hear.  However, there were certain guitar passages along the way that had a strictly more Americanized feel to it, absolutely setting Ash Borer apart.  At the same time though, Ash Borer were putting out 15-18 minute songs.  Yes, they payed off, but they were often patience testing if you weren't used to this style of music.  On their 2013 self titled followup, Ash Borer continued along the same grizzly path adding in some even sludgier production, but the tracks here were much more to the point.  Ash Borer's first collection of tracks seriously pushed the 20 minute mark, but here they were down to about 10 minutes in length, W O W (except for that last 20 minute behemoth).  Ash Borer though most importantly sounded focused in still creating these unbelievable metal portraits, this was seriously some of the most epic black metal I'd heard in ages.  Then, sadly in 2013 Ash Borer also released "Bloodlands", which was some of the most arguous, boring black metal I'd heard in years.  Here, nothing came close to sounding epic, Ash Borer sounded bloated and out of ideas.   For the first time in three years though, Ash Borer are back with "The Irrepassable Gate".

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jWjbm4p-GzA

Not so shockingly, “The Irrepassable Gate” is made up of 4 beefy tracks and 2 shorter ones.  Up first is the album’s title track, which right off the bat is a huge change of pace for Ash Borer.  If you’re familiar with Ash Borer’s brand of black metal, you’ll know that most of the time you need to be very patient with their material for it all to pay off.  Yet, here we are seconds into this opening track and Ash Borer are already pummeling into more of a doom metal feel.  Now since their usual approach to black metal is sluggish and patience testing, Ash Borer should seriously quickly latch on to this more doom metal sound.  As far as the instrumentals go, they’re solid, especially those drums.  When those guttural screams come in it’s a real wake up call, I really needed that after all the rap I’ve had to listen to lately.  However, I still find it shocking just how straightforward Ash Borer is sounding.  It got me thinking, what is this missing?  And then it hit me, the atmosphere.  Listening to Ash Borer’s music used to make me feel like I was traveling through some other worldly medieval kingdom, this just sounds more like the opening act of a Kvelertak show.  That certainly isn’t a bad thing, but man do I ever miss my atmosphere.  The vocals are a little on the off-putting side as well.  They’re far from terrible metal vocals, they’re actually still pretty good. It’s just a real change of pace, which I guess we should have seen coming from their last studio album.  Later on in the track though, Ash Borer slowly get back to their roots, throwing everything doom metal out of the window and blasting into some real black metal verses.  Instrumentally, this track is right where it needs to be.  The guitars are the perfect combination of rough and epic, the drums continue to be a huge selling point, and the overall grandness of these sounds are all there.  The problem remains in the atmosphere completely, this could all be tweaked just so slightly and be so much more memorable.  Around the 7 minute mark though, Ash Borer do get their act together a bit and start to bring in more of an atmosphere.  And what do you know, it actually leads to some of the most memorable moments of “The Irrepassable Gate”.  Up against this murkier atmosphere, those growls come off so much more effective, and those drums continue to be spot on.  “The Irrepassable Gate” overall is OK, but it certainly doesn’t hit me as hard as their older material.  Up next is “Lacerated Spirit”, which from the opening notes is seemingly going down the same doom metal path.  Hell, there’s even some sludge metal thrown in there too.  While the instrumentals are solid, it’s the atmosphere here that seriously hooks me.  Like the later minutes of the last track, the vocals on this album are actually working a lot better against these slower passages.   Only a few bars in and "Lacerated Spirit" is already a HUGE improvement for Ash Borer.  While it's still not totally taking me away like their early material was, we're getting back on the right track.  The atmosphere here is by far the greatest selling point, tracks like these make me feel like I'm traveling through the darkest dungeon in The Elder Scrolls video game series.  As the track goes on, the guitars are slowly beginning to sound more and more epic, but what took so long??  Yes, Ash Borer's style of music has always been on the patience testing side.  But there was always SOMETHING going on in their hulking mass of black metal, and the rewards were always incredible.  Slowly though, "Lacerated Spirit" is getting Ash Borer right back to where they need to be.  The guitar lines are solid, and the drum performance constantly building behind everything is just fantastic.  It's still a little sluggish, but at the very least now were getting something in return for being patient.  There's also this fantastic, hazy instrumental break that's so intensely dark that I can't help but love it.  It's noisy, hell maybe it's even a little drone metal influenced, but I can absolutely dig it.  Then, my prayers to the Black Metal God's are answered as everything comes crashing back in.  The explosion that follows is every bit as brutal as I wanted it to be, THIS is why I love metal.  Yea, it took a while to hit, but man did it ever pay off.  It's not as affective as their early material, but if we get more payoffs like this, I'm set.  On "Lustration I", Ash Borer are going 100% for atmosphere.  But clocking in at about 4 minutes, Ash Borer need to work fast to nail this one.

Rating 7.2/10

Give A Listen To: “Lacerated Spirit”, “Lustration I”, “Grey Marrow”, “Lustration II”

Overall Thoughts:  Overall, this is a decent metal album.  It's a little more focused than Ash Borer's last studio album, but the band still seem a little disjointed and unfocused.  However, to see Ash Borer try their hand at some doom and sludge metal is interesting within itself, and there's still plenty of black metal for all of you old school Ash Borer fans.