More often than not, I find myself questioning if many new releases can actually be considered metal. People say that if you can trace it back to Black Sabbath, it’s probably metal. But punk is also often brought into discussion when talking about music in this genre, so we have to look to Patti Smith or the Ramones. But then there is post-punk to consider, and we can thank Pere Ubu, Devo and Iggy Pop for that style. Ah, we almost forgot about shoegaze! Thank you, My Bloody Valentine. The point is, metal has so many influences, as the sound it has evolved to in the second decade of the 21st century is so much different than what it was before. This is even to the point where I do not know what to classify Ainsoph as.
Dutch three-piece Ainsoph is a mystery. I spoke recently about how Dragged Into Sunlight is a mysterious band, which they are, but this group is far more underground and unknown than those UK legends. Composed of a female vocalist (I.V.), male guitarist/bassist/keyboard player (T.D.), and a male drummer (M.T.), the information on this group is extremely limited. I found that small tidbit of personal information on a post from another website who reviewed this album, as I could not find it on the album’s Bandcamp page, nor anywhere else; Ainsoph seems to be mostly off the grid. Sure, they released this record, Ω – V, through Amsterdam-based Wolves of Hades Records, but other than this information, there is nearly nothing else that the artist is linked to. Even their Facebook only has information already stated, and some photos and show announcements. Other than an Italian ritual ambient group and a Japanese prog-rock band (both named Ain Soph), there is no trace of who or what Ainsoph really is.
Sounding like a happy medium between blackgaze group Oathbreaker and experimental rock band Helium Horse Fly (strangely, both from Belgium), Ainsoph channels a metal sound with enough shoegaze reverb and post-punk energy that results in an auditory experience unlike any other so far this year. I.V. serenades with a siren song on nearly every one of these tracks as pummeling drums and noisy guitars warble all over the album. Mesmerizing to listen to, this album is not conventionally brutal as much metal is, as it does not need to be. The hypnotic quality that permeates the project is something that keeps drawing me back again and again, even though it lacks screaming vocals or walls of distortion.
“Spiral” is a prime example of all sides of this artist’s sound, with the first half of the track settling into a melancholic yet catchy melody that reminds me far too much of material off of the new Have A Nice Life record, after approximately a minute of Ordinary Corrupt Human Love-era Deafheaven worship, with blast beats and tremolo guitars to match. An atmospheric and serene track, the group’s use of changing styles is perhaps their most impressive quality, as moments of seamless genre-hopping are placed at the beginning, middle and end of many cuts. The next track, “Back to Purgatory,” is a simple but effective attempt at instrumental post-rock that provides a quick but needed breather before the epic atmospheric doom metal track, “The Long and Self-Destructive Road.” With one of the best climaxes on the album, this track builds to a cacophonous noise wall of instrumentation and shrieked vocals of mythic proportion, yet the band continues with the song afterward by pulling it back to where it began. The constant shifting of tone and aggression on this work is a highlight that not many other bands can claim masterwork over.
The opening track “Home” is the first song I heard from this group before the album released, and after scaring me with a riff played in a mono channel to lead off the song, what unfolded was an addicting and entrancing listen that kept me wanting more. I highly anticipated this album, even though I had never heard of the band. In the probably first moment of this experience for me, I knew that I had discovered something wonderful.
Ω – V is marvelous; Ainsoph mixes moody post-punk with various metal subgenres so coherently that I am blown away with every listen. What genre is this music? It is really hard to categorize due to its vast array of influences. Experimental rock is probably the best fit, as it is similar enough to Helium Horse Fly and similar projects that love to use jazz, noise, metal, punk, and rock concurrently to make an amorphous blob of a genre, and it is the best of its kind so far this year.
Additionally, I never would have expected a strange experimental rock/metal band to cover a Funkadelic track so well.
Final Verdict: “She longed for the void, like she did no man.”
Favorite Tracks: “Spiral,” “The Long and Self-Destructive Road,” “Home”
FFO: Helium Horse Fly, Oathbreaker, Bent Knee
Track List:
- Home
- Malkuth
- Spiral
- Back to Purgatory
- The Long and Self-Destructive Road
- Less Than a Beast
- Maggot Brain (Funkadelic Cover)
You can support the band by purchasing this album here
