Empires of Ash

So much atmospheric folk black metal is floating out there in the wild that it's easy to overlook the really good newcomers -- but not this one, for Sojourner's debut, Empires of Ash stands head and shoulders above its contemporaries in terms of its epic, vaguely Celtic-sounding composition. A long-distance collaboration between members located in New Zealand, Sweden, and Scotland, the result has the measured grandeur of Saor, but a much heavier, black-metal-oriented attack that goes a long way towards making this the amazing landscape that it becomes to the listener. Bound by Blood, even with its steady mid-tempo beat and lead harmonies, still focuses more on being a lavish horn-and-tin-whistle folk soundtrack than anything else. But the band is just warming up with that track; Heritage of the Natural Realm, their single prior to this album's release, follows as a nine-minute epic, laden with tremolo picking, blastbeats, and all. The production on the metal portions imparts a huge echo to everything that calls to mind Summoning's classic sound, especially when the guitars kick in with an arpeggiated melody, a behemoth that piles on even more layers and gets even more crushing following each (briefly) quiet portion of the melody. The singing mostly consists of black-metal shrieks courtesy of Emilio Crespo, though guitarist/whistle player Chloe Bray does clean vocals in a number of places, and on the entirety of the much quieter The Pale Host, which is structured as a sort of ballad. Homeward is another standout -- a buzzing lead starting off furious blastbeats that are overshadowed by a slow-tempo melody, with Crespo's voice sinking to a hoarse whisper offset by Bray's sweet-toned chorus work. The songs are almost all long, but not a moment is wasted; the melodies stretch out through the songs in ornate detail, supported by the fantastic layering job. This combines with songwriting that smoothly escorts a listener from chugging power chords, to calm piano chill-outs, to furious riffing just as recovery sets in. And "smooth" is the name of the game -- the guitars on the title track have all the edges sanded off, and instead of making things sound too slick, it helps to mortar together the separate instruments into a single force. Coming out of nowhere, and from such a split-up, international group, Empires of Ash is a pleasant surprise that easily gives established atmospheric nature-metal acts such as Fen or Saor a run for their money; this is definitely one to check out. Bandcamp: http://sojournermetal.bandcamp.com/album/empires-of-ash.