Attacked with doubled-down intensity and infused with well-informed levels of both 90’s and nowadays ‘old school’ death metal inspired detail this debut full-length album from Helsinki, Finland-based quintet ASHEN TOMB arrives well-aware of the high set standards for the sub-genre today. While not every single riff on ‘Ecstatic Death Reign‘ lands a staggering blow the effect of their work is yet maniac, just brutal enough to leave a dent but with enough variety to entertain for its ~40 minute rip through. Though it will serve its biggest thrills to die-hard classics obsessed death metal skulls seeking admixture of various familiar formae the mark of quality should be evident enough, though not overstated, to the general underground extreme metal ear.

Though Ashen Tomb only just formed in 2021 they’re live capable, tour ready, fully pro on-record and there is a well-enough developed rhythmic personae in mind that it becomes clear they’ve all had some manner of experience under their belt before collaborating on an ‘old school’ death metal style. Amongst their years of collective development as musicians the best known association is probably God Disease, a death/doom metal band via vocalist Ilkka Johannes Laaksonen, but variously active groups Virulent Life, Hiidensurma and Inequity run the gamut from deathgrind to melodic death and atmospheric black metal. The intent of this band was to create some manner of Incantation-esque death metal, the highest standard being Dead Congregation or similar, while bringing in some late-late 80’s fumes via shared interest in Autopsy, Bolt Thrower and similar classics. This was directly reflected in the quality of their introductory self-titled debut EP (‘Ashen Tomb‘, 2022), a remarkable starting point that’d captured the intensity of 90’s death metal as it’d coincided with grindcore, thrash metal, and extreme doom metal variations conscious of all of these elements via the east coast US death metal mutiny, some death-thrash metal change ups, and of course some Finnish doom metal creeping into the surreal. Compared to ‘Ecstatic Death Reign‘ it was an outlining of intent that’d tunneled directly into an ‘old school’ death metal headspace.

When Ashen Tomb are rocketing up from the crypt on the shorter, hairier ~4-5 minutes songs that kick off ‘Ecstatic Death Reign‘ they’re basically on fire. “Body Bag” punches said bag into mush with its nigh gurgling growls and whipping brutal death inflected crawl n’ blasted start and the Immolation-esque trod per the opening of “Catharsis Through Torture” is equally ruthless in slapping down a best foot forward as the riffs come first and the drumming punishes from all angles. That said those first couple of songs aren’t a complete barometer for the direction this album ultimately takes only an indication of where it’ll end up per its particularly strong bookends. The title track (“Ecstatic Death Reign“) is the first sign of things leaning somewhat generic, or, underbaked with its simplified gallop riffs and lead melody, a surrogate for the Bolt Thrower-esque leads of the first EP with a few twisted Finndeath motions socketed into some of its tangents. Though I’d not gone in expecting an exaggerative death-thrashing riff-fest they do kinda drop the atmospheric, cavernous affect of their sound quicker than expected.

No doubt the rush holds up even if the riffs don’t always carry a decent death metal tune as ‘Ecstatic Death Reign‘ goes a little bit sideways on the details as the messy rocking solos on “Anamorphosis” lead into a few bland riff inserts along the way. I don’t mind moshable rhythms at all, and the grinding simplicity they occasionally go with in transitional moments is just fine, but this song feels like it intends to fill time without matching the intense momentum of the four that came before it. Though the song’s composition is intricate, snaking through a series of ideas with some appreciable skill, the mix becomes cluttered as the vocals and guitars compete for attention and the former rings over-loud and flat in its full-bellied, sustained growls. This’d been the most grating part of the album for my own taste where the peaking or buzzing edge of the vocal tone began to interrupt more often than not, recalling the endless parade of over-produced and oversimplified death metal from the aging big-label Swedish death mold… albeit with four times the riff count in this case.

The general reprise toward the endpoint comes with “Cave of Staring Eyes” leaning into a trade-off between more surreal slow-to-mid paced atmospheric movements akin to death/doom metal and what are essentially later Dismember-esque riffs sans the HM-2 blockage. With the final two songs on the album there is some quickly served redemption thanks to, well, riffs which are numerous and multi-directional enough to match the early-on intensity of ‘Ecstatic Death Reign‘ and round out the full listen with the drumming on closer “In Death, A Whisper” particularly catching my ear for the diabolic blasting they’d pressed throughout the song. Overall the ride through this album is uneven in terms of generating points of memorable focus but the overall quality of the experience remains commendable front to back, even if a few riffs/songs didn’t hit for my own taste.

While I do think this is an above-average death metal experience for 2024 ‘Ecstatic Death Reign‘ does (briefly) get lost in the weeds in approach of its middle portion. Ashen Tomb‘ve managed an appreciable density of ideas where even the less viable ideas punched into this thing rarely retract from their full-bore level of intensity, sapping a heavier dynamic for the sake of an overactive swat at even the more death/doom level movements. In this way their work doesn’t yet reach for the abrupt damage and canonical parentage of say Corpsessed or Gorephilia and remains avoidant of a reach into the abyss for a different sound altogether (a la Lie in Ruins or Lantern) but there is some potential for their style to reach that level of profundity over time. Of course Finnish death metal has many patient giants in its greater crypt but there are yet few worthy traditional death metal bands sprouting up with such well-formed entity of late and in this way these folks stand out despite playing a common form of traditional death metal in admixture of classicist traits. A moderately high recommendation.

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