2004-03-17
Confusion is some thing that can cause considerable harm to a band, and what happened to Asterius is fine example.
The band I speak about is a talented German group. Which haven’t decided upon its musical direction, black metal, death metal, Goth or electronica.
The sad part is that a major part of the band’s material is of extremely high quality, their black metalish tinged direction is top notch, what trips them over is their attempt at being overly experimental, doing things that they should have avoided, such as incorporating clean vocals that are far from passable, introducing synthesized sounds and noises that sound out of place, Etc, Etc…
The sound is excellent, smooth and aggressive, the treble is located somewhere in the upper regions of the sharpness sphere, the drums sound just right, the guitars tend to sound a but hollow at times, but they fall into place in the final mix.
The vocalist’s black/death vocals are pretty strong, but the other guy, the one in charge of the clean vocals,,, he’s better of silenced…
The band avant-garde approach also fuses itself in the lyrics, as evident in such titles as On Black Tusk and Gemini North, too band the band’s musical salad sabotages their intelligent concept.
If asked to compare them to something, I’d say Kovanent are the closest, though Asterius went further with their avant-garde aspirations.
Some good tracks there, nice riffs, the opening track’s is a good example, and Another Me is another, yet I would definitely suggest them to either better their strange musical combination, or just decide upon one agreeable genre.
Recommended to Heavy Avant-garde and freakish band lovers only.
Alon Miasnikov
