Ashenspire follow up their debut album Speak Not of The Laudanum Quandary (2017) with this second release for Code666 Records. Lyrically Hostile Architecture is themed around the return of fascism in our mainstream politics, and the alienation of society created by the ever-increasing vast wealth gap between the working classes and the elite. And instrumentally the record is one of the most bizarrely original creations of music I’ve heard in some time.
This record is an avantgarde blend of styles, part metal, part Jazz. It takes a couple of listens to understand fully what Ashenspire are looking to achieve with the sound, but its one hell of journey to get there. Opening with ‘The Law of Asbestos’ and an eerie combination of finger picked guitar and saxophone, distorted guitars slowly blend in before the distinct vocals enter the fray. As the track erupts, there is an almost mesmeric quality to the mix of guitars and horns, while the percussion somehow flows with combinations of poly-rhythms and odd time signatures. It’s a wonderful sounding mess of weirdness which continues with a faster intro on ‘Baton Brut’, opening with double kickdrums and a blackened cacophony of noise, as guitars and horns swirl around together, and the voice of Fraser Gordon aims to raise a rabble with his thick Scottish accent, and an almost Henry Rollins-sequel quality to his vocals.
‘Plattenbau Persephone Praxis’ has a sombre opening with a beautiful combination of distorted guitars, jazz drumming and a prominent bass hook, while ‘Tragic Heroin’ opens with a chugging metal riff before progressing to a swirling cacophony of powerfully emotive music, building to a final crescendo of double-kick drums and venomous vocals.
Elsewhere on ‘Apathy as Arsenic, Lethargy as Lead’ the band sound like they are full on improvising as many different instruments jam with off-beat time signatures around a stabbing guitar lead, while the melancholic vocals build with the use of horns and strings into all out chaos. Final track ‘Cable Street Again’ begins with a spat vocal of “This is where it starts!” unsurprisingly a little backward in coming forward, and the controlled chaos continues with the angry and emotional screamed vocals of; “Desperate times, call for desperate measures” over furiously strummed guitars causing all out disorder!
This is a bonkers yet intellectually thought-provoking record which absolutely will not be for everyone … but if you’re willing to go beyond Mr. Bungle levels of strange then I dare you to check it out, if nothing else but to ask some serious questions of your brain, and to learn that anything is possible when it comes to creating music.
Buy the album here: https://ashenspire.bandcamp.com/album/hostile-architecture
7 / 10
ABSTRAKT_SOUL_