Ashspawn

That Belgian black metal veterans Enthroned took six years to produce their 12th album is no surprise, given both the global turmoil of 2020 to 2022 and the fact that their search for a new guitarist and bassist ultimately took them to the UK by way of Poland. The fact that Thomasz “T. Kaos” Dziubich had to replace not one but two members, taking on guitar, bass and backing vocal duties for Ashspawn, only makes his performance alongside vocalist Nornagest and drummer Menthor more impressive. The record roils and squeals in hellish European fashion, with vicious blasts and progressive song structures, conjuring Morbid Angel or Atheist one moment, mid-period Mayhem the next. Lyrically, Ashspawn is said to have been co-written by elusive occult author Gilles de Laval to “channel arcane praxis, metaphysical calculus and esoteric mapping” into a ritual invocation.