Ash Borer - Demo 12" (Vendetta)

Might as well start off with the most important aspect of this album and that’s definitely the instruments.The guitar riffs and tremolo picking definitely have the biggest effect on this demo. They are used to create one hell of an atmosphere. When you hear some of the riffs on this album, they’re going to put you in a trance like state. Now with only two songs on this album, the first being about 14 minutes and the second being about 11, you’re going to hear the riffs repeated plenty of times. Now for some black metal bands repetitiveness can be bad, well that’s not the case with Ash Borer. The riffs are extremely catchy and will stick in your head long after you listen to this album. Drumming is pretty standard for a black metal album. Now with atmospheric black metal you should know that it’s all about atmosphere (obviously). The drums aren’t really meant to stand out over the guitars and they really don’t, but it’s not like it’s the same beat over and over. There’s enough variety in the drumming to keep the listener entertained for the whole 25 minutes of the demo. Fast and slow parts are present on the album and the drums vary with that.
Vocally the album is pretty unique. Now the first thing you need to know about the vocals is that they aren’t at the forefront at all. They’re very low in the mix and you have to listen hard to even hear them under the riffs and the drumming. Even with that being said, the vocals are extremely well done. His voice is extremely high-pitched and what he does probably can’t even be considered a scream. It’s more like a high-pitched howl of agony or pain. There’s plenty of emotion in this guy’s voice and he executes it extremely well into the music. Like I mentioned though, you have really sit down and listen to the album closely to hear his voice at all because it’s buried beneath the wall of sound that the guitars give off."