Remnants of Forgotten Horrors, the 2014 full length debut from Sweden’s Astrophobos, really positioned the band as one of the great new acts in the whole Blue Cover Black Metal style—that being the icy melodic black metal most famously popularized by Dissection. (We’ll forgive Astrophobos for not actually having blue album covers, FOR NOW.) The album also helped to set the band slightly apart from the pack in that it wasn’t quite as neoclassical and graceful as Storm of the Light’s Bane or as epic in scope as Dawn’s Slaughtersun, but instead chose to pummel the listener to a pulp. Astrophobos, in effect, brought the brutal side out of the genre in a way not heard since Naglfar’s Diabolical.
So naturally, it ruled, as good stuff in this style typically does. To follow up Remnants, the band has chosen to go with the reliable EP route. If the sounds heard on Enthroned in Flesh are any indication, Astrophobos recognized their small niche-within-a-niche, as it is even more pummeling and violent than the full length.
The formula is simple: heaps of frigid, razor-sharp tremolo riffs fighting for space with equally chilling shrieks and a torrent of drums. Plenty of said trem riffs will give you an instant Somberlain flashback (the cascading delivery in “Tabula Rasa”), while the effort to constantly push the intensity of every element beyond the brink screams of Dawn’s most classic work (especially on closer “The Cadaver Monarch”), even if much of the atmosphere is reduced in favor of the aforementioned violence. Tried-and-true, utterly unabashed in its influences, and pretty darn kickass.
A couple of potential caveats: First, nothing here quite matches up to the best material from the full length. But considering the quality of those moments, that isn’t as much a knock on the EP as it is a praise of tunes like “Winds of Insanity” or “Celestial Calamity.” Also, it ought to go without saying that Astrophobos isn’t going to blow down any doors or revolutionize anything. This is very much genre metal, but it’s really good genre metal, and the audience for this kind of stuff (uh, hello) is pretty rabid.
In other words, appreciate what we have, ye rabid fans of Blue Cover Black Metal. With Jon Nödtveidt quietly resting six feet under and Dawn taking their sweet goddamn time with their comeback record, we’re left with the high second tier bands to carry the ice scabbard. When this high second tier is putting out stuff as instantly satisfying as Enthroned in Flesh, it’s clear that there is plenty of life left in the ol’ icy meloblack tank.
