Achsar – ‘In Battle I Was Born’ (EP 2019)
Rating: 9/10
Release: 25 May 2019
Label: Independent / Bandcamp
I have to admit I was not familiar with Achsar prior to hearing this EP and you may not be as well. I will say this though, after hearing their new EP, you will want to look for their previous releases (multiple demos, singles and 2014 full length “Septentrionalis”) and get hooked like me. Hailing from Slovakia, it is nice to hear something from there as we rarely see anything folk metal related. The EP is entitled “In Battle I was Born” (yes this is an EP….kudos Achsar) and has 6 tracks at a stark 18 minutes. My feeling is not that it is 18 minutes (maybe too short for some) but what you do in that 18 minutes and they deliver lots of good stuff. The EP starts off with another unnecessary intro (“Prologue”) but after that there are 5 tracks which show a nice range of styles and overall flexibility in the Achsar sound. One thing that occurred to me in a lot of successful releases is that there needs to be a combination of the familiar and the new and that is what Achsar have done here. They have a lot of comparable acts in their sound……Baldrs Draumar, Amorphis, Finntroll and Æther Realm all come to mind….but they don’t totally hijack their styles completely but meld it into their own. I would say power/thrash/folk is a description I could live with. They appear to be a 6 piece (vox, dual guitar, bass, keys and drums) so not super folky with the exception of some acoustic guitar in closing track “The Last Warrior’s Breath” (which also features clean vocals which work pretty well) and the title track. The keys fill in the folk instrument void with a flute sort of sound amongst others throughout. The tracks are short (less than a minute for “Berserk Rage” and just over 5 for “Letters From The Dark”) but they just are all simple, get to the point, catchy semi-thrashy, not overdone tracks. Of course I had to jump back and listen to the full length on Bandcamp and found even more magic with tracks of comparable style and quality…..where have these guys been for 5 years? I’m glad they are back at it since this was a nice surprise after having reviewed a few lukewarm releases recently. Nothing special in the sound department although a little brighter and edgy compared to the full length and I think a more natural sound other than the drums sounding a little too punchy at times. At 18 minutes it may not capture everyone due to its length, but I would say it is nice reintroduction if you will to Achsar and for me quite a welcome shock and on my list of EP’s of the year for 2019.
Tracklist
- Prologue 01:09
- Berserk Rage 00:57
- In Battle I Was Born 03:39
- Black Raven 04:27
- Letters from the Dark 05:01
- The Last Warrior’s Breath 03:03