CoC : Ashes - And the Angels Wept : Review

Ashes - _And the Angels Wept_
(Necropolis Records, 1998)
by: Nuno Almeida (8 out of 10)

Ashes are Swedish and this is their first EP, after the release of their debut _Death Has Made its Call_. Contrarily to its somewhat boring old-school black/death metal sound (in their own words), _And the Angels Wept_ is much faster and shows a much more aggressive sound, partly due to the addition of a new drummer, Mikael Wassholm, replacing Timo Hagstrom. The EP contains six songs and lasts for just over 20 minutes. Jonas Magnusson's vocals are very good, following the black metal tradition. The music is fast-paced black/death, but very melodic, in the Swedish tradition. It still holds the old-school feeling, and reminds me a lot of Dissection, although Ashes have a far less epic feeling. They even have a track called "Son of Mourning", but it's not related to the original Dissection song. On the last track, "To the Bone", the old-school feeling becomes much more evident. Overall, _And the Angels Wept_ is a good release that has left me anxious to hear their next full-length album, which will hopefully be out later this year. One final note regarding the band's promotional photos: looking at them, I would have said that they were on some kind of techno project, with their short hair, sunglasses and any-color-but-black t-shirts. (Also reviewed in Ancient Ceremonies #3 -- http://come.to/ac_zine/)

(article published 19/5/1999)