Afsky has released their third album.
Created in 2015 by Danish musician Ole Pedersen Luk (vocals/all instruments, Heltekvad, ex-Solbrud), the project continues its collaboration with Vendetta Records for the release of Om hundrede år in 2023, just before his tour with Uada, where he will of course be assisted by live musicians.
Drums were recorded by Simon Frenning Sørensen (Heltekvad, Morild), who will accompany him on stage.
Stormfulde hav is the first track, and it will immediately shroud us with this curtain of dark and seizing melancholy, whether it is during the clean-sounding introduction or during the haunting rhythmic. Visceral screams are naturally integrated to the waves of oppression and Old School sounds, sometimes letting clean tones integrate the latent aggressiveness to allow some quietness to melodies before Frosne vind places dissonant and raw tones the slowness easily adopts, as well as the most lively and incisive parts. However, this soothing melancholy can be found in the slowness and rage, as well as on the tragic Tak for alt, which uses intense, piercing tones to embellish its desolate world. The sound becomes more screaming, more emaciated and more sensitive while keeping this ghostly approach which gives it an almost unreal dimension, before Det der var comes to give a more dissonant touch to its massive rhythmic. The possessed vocal parts always appear in a raw way in this ocean of unchained darkness, which develops a rather strong contrast with the final with Post-Rock influences followed by the introduction of Tid and its sonorities which progressively ignite to let the rage explode and transform itself into waves of dark quietness. The break will rekindle the flame of rage, letting an airy but raw and cold Black Metal flood and fascinate us before Fred være med støvet takes over, coupling soaring sounds with an abrasive Black Metal. The sound is slowly forged between violence and tranquility, letting both aspects permeate each other to form an as sincere as captivating whole, letting saturation abandon its violence for a heady final.
With its six tracks, Afsky will develop a soaring but striking universe. Each note is chosen, calculated, and yet we feel on Om Hundrede Ar a raw, sincere and abrasive strength. Listen, and you will know.
95/100