Asgaroth – Red Shift
Overly symphonic metal really has to instantly impress me if I’m going to ever pick the release up again. Predominant synth lines I can live with IF the often annoying goth influence is kept in check. If the music passes the test, the next hurdle is the vocal style. I’m not a big fan of clean vocals, let alone female singing in this context (which this band thankfully does not have). Even though Spain’s Asgaroth pile on the keyboards and allow other eclectic musical styles to infiltrate their sound, this band seems to walk a tightrope of acceptability in the land of the Worm. The metal side of their delivery is always there lurking in the shadows with a harsher vocal style and minimal crunch rhythms, but when the fragile side seeps up in the form of more passionate vocals and pretentious symphonies… I’m about to hit stop and give up, but Asgaroth throw in an interesting twist, or dig back in with a commanding growl to keep me at bay to see where they go with it. “Red Shift” is impressively layered and adventurous in design, but I keep waiting for it to kick in. The whole album acts like an elongated intro that keeps me hanging, waiting for that definite stroke of power that satisfies and sets the listener up for moments of brilliance like “Alsvartr (The Oath)” from Anthems to the Welkin at Dusk did. It never comes, leaving me to endure the endless waves of mid-paced atmosphere that lulls like a church organ one moment, to adopt more of a prog intricacy in the synth tones the next. “Red Shift” isn’t necessarily depressive or eerie… it just IS. Perhaps some form of emotion one way or the other would give this band the much needed direction they need to create in a similar vein as the material on this album, but something far more riveting to command the listener to keep coming back. “Red Shift” is good, but it doesn’t promote listener staying power as Asgaroth blur the lines between the symphonic, metal and shoegazer goth genres. I offer an uncertain shrug of the shoulders to describe this one. I know that offers little help. – Marty
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