ASENBLUT - "LEGENDEN" (2018)

ASENBLUT - "LEGENDEN"
(Running time: 22:32 minutes; 5 songs)
("AFM Records"; 2018; CD):

Hey guys, yes, I'm back on track again. So for now you will get this post and this very one will be or better is my record review on the current ASENBLUT Mini-CD "LEGENDEN" that was released pretty to very recently via the pretty big and active "AFM RECORDS" label, yes, and then tomorrow you will get the 'obligatoiary' "CLASSICK OF THE MONTH" post and then that will be pretty much all for this month... the two bigger posts that I've announced and promised you earlier this month for coming up still this very month I will serve you pretty soon and early at the beginning of April 2018 because... I was just too damn lazy to get it still right now done and I was especially far too lazy during my current (easter) holidays/vacations... I know, shame on me... to get the finishing touches done on 'them'... sorry folks... and, okay, after you now know 'what's up currently?' up here let's kick this 'thing' here really off and so now let's go: ASENBLUT are a Viking themed Death Metal band from Germany (I think, more precisely, from the City of Göttingen, pretty much near-by where I live) and they are already around for a bit over a decade or so I think and for all what I've read they seem to be a bit 'controversially discussed'... to be honest, yes, I don't see any reasons why. First of to this pseudo- and wannabe-political bullcrap farce that ASENBLUT would be a right winging Nazi band I won't even say anything but just: Hell no, they are definitely not, period. Just get a real life you AFA nutjobs and your most worst problems (especially those that you have with yourself) will  surely and simply vanish. And second or 'secondly'... music-wise... oh mighty Buddha, stop talking them down just because you don't like their german lyrics or because you are full of complexes and so you don't like that their frontman and singer is outspoken about being an active Strongman and an inactive Bodybuilder or because you just have to talk them down because they are 'just a band from near-by' because anyone and everyone who likes AMON AMARTH will also like ASENBLUT simply because at least today with what they show us here on and with "LEGENDEN" they are already next to the guys from Sweden, point and fact. I used that phrase 'at least today' because their earlier relases I don't know properly so far, but this very one here, ASENBLUT's "LEGENDEN", I know very, very well and it features four own old songs of them that are for what I know more or less completly re-done on their current level of skill(s), and this four songs namely are "DIE LEGENDE", "HELDENBÜRDE", "ASENBLUT", and "VON DES VERRÄTERS UNTERGANG", and then they also add a pretty nice and cool cover of MANOWAR's "GOD OR MAN" to it (no match compared to/with the original but still a very decent one). Heavy forward(s) pushing bulldozing Death Metal with a clear and strong Viking (or Pagan) vibe and spirit to it and with a focus on rousing mid-pace slashers with some few faster up-paced outbreaks and with very massive and the songs strongly marking melody lines to it all. Very compact and focussed songwriting that creates a pretty huge intensity and shines with a tight atmosphere. Crushing guitars, harsh grunts and screams (but still also pretty easy to understand), and a thundering rhythm section to back it all up. Imagine a good and strong mixture out of AMON AMARTH, with some UNLEASHED and some BOLT THROWER (especially if we talk about the general approach and the pace work of the songs), add some skullsmashing Thrash Metal to it with some few blackened notes to it all and you're pretty much right there. I would just wish that ASENBLUT would maybe work some more variations into their song arrangements to fresh it all up and maybe work out your own identity at least a bit more but maybe that's also just me (and after I like my Death Metal more of the brutal and U.S. american kind I am also maybe surely just not in the main target group of ASENBLUT as well, just that you know that) and other than that I really like what ASENBLUT serve us here with their "LEGENDEN" Mini-CD and I can calmly recommend this little shining disc to you. Some 'genre-typical' lyrics, a also 'genre-typical' and pretty good artwork, and a fat bombing production sound we get on top of it all. So, yes, even I am surely not in the main target group of a band like ASENBLUT they definitely convinced me with their "LEGENDEN" and made me pretty curious for a new longplayer of them hitting the scenery in the future and if you are into the above described and named styles of music and bands you now get right here and right now my honest and clear recommendation(s).

(7,5 of 10 points)

http://www.asenblut.de/ (-the link to the homepage of the band)

ASENBLUT - "ASENBLUT" (2018, "LEGENDEN")