Time Signature Phantoms...

Genre: black metal

Ash Borer is an American atmosperic black metal band, and "Cold of Ages" is a follow up to their eponymous debut from 2011.

After a suitably colds and chilling intro, the album kicks into what sounds like your run-of-the mill boring black metal release. However, the listener soon realizes that, although Ash Borer draws aplenty on the genre typical features of black metal, there is a lot of interesting stuff going on. Amidst the tremolo picking and blastbeating madness, the band offers psychedelic organ-effects and nicely placed accentuations on various cymbals. The opening track features a number of outof-the-blue changes and a doom-ladden bridge. 'Phantoms' is a journey from depression to rage, taking the listener through various dark vistas and impressions, while 'Convict All Flesh' is the sountrack to the apocalypse. 'Removed Forms' combines the atmospheric with the intense and features a melodic breakdown which provides a nice contrast to that chaotic evil that characterizes the album.

So, we are dealing with black metal which simultaneously pays homage to the genre, aking use of several of its conventions, but at the same time adds to it. The tracks on the album are fairly long, and the mosic is cold, brooding, and meandering, so this is an album you have to take your time to listen to in order to appreciate it.

The production is a bit murky and the mastering somewhat imbalanced. And for some reason the volume of the final master is very low. I know that, within black metal, such lo-fi production has aesthetic value, but there is so much interesting stuff going on here that it actually bothers me a bit that a lot of it drowns in the production.

Fans of atmospheric black metal who do not mind a bit of innovation should check out this album.