Born as a one-man project in 2013 by composer and multi-instrumentalist Trevor Portz, Ashen Horde has, over the course of several EPs and two critically acclaimed LPs, from a thick black metal sound to something more ferocious and harder to define. Taking influences from a multitude of extreme metal sub-genres, Ashen horde has a knack for taking the best of what’s around and creating something greater than the sum of its parts.
Ending Ashen Horde’s solo run in 2016, Portz invited Stevie Boiser to take over lead vocal duties for the band. Known for his work with tech-death bands such as Inferi and Vale Of Pnath, we first got a taste of the new and improved Ashen Horde in 2017 with the release of ‘The Alchemist’ EP. Presenting a bitter and biting blackened sound with a new ferocity on vocals, fans were left with a deep an unforgiving hunger for a new Ashen Horde full length.
Luckily, 2018 saw the band return to the studio to bring us something more diverse, yet with a sound that doesn’t compromise on the intensity and ferocity that we have become accustomed to. Completing ‘Fallen Cathedrals’ in the early moons of 2019, the band, having signed with Extreme Metal Music/Rockshots records for this album, have cemented the date of the release as the 22nd of March 2019.
Giving the fans an early lick of their flavoursome release, Ashen Horde have unveiled the concept album’s first single ‘Profound Darkness’ with an intense visualisation. Featuring clean vocals for the very first time on an Ashen Horde release, the band provide a short explanation of the track stating that, ‘We slow things down a bit for this one, it is a song that is much grimmer and dark. The power has gone out across the entire poor part of the city, and the inhabitants—wary and distrusting of their wealthy neighbors—have decided that it must surely be the fault of the rich. Thus, they determine that the peace between the two sides is over and that they must get revenge’.
Exploring class warfare and societal devolution, Portz explains the albums concept by saying that, ‘The forthcoming album, Fallen Cathedrals, is the perfect illustration of what Ashen Horde is all about. Musically, it draws influence from across the metal spectrum. There is hyper speed, blast-beat-fueled black metal that runs alongside pummeling death metal riffs; clean-sung melodic passages juxtaposed against face-melting screams, and headbanging beats intermixed with progressive odd-time signatures’.
So be sure to chisel the 22nd of march into the Google Calendars and check out the video below whilst you wait.