Sometime ago it was quite hard not to just find an all-female metal band, but women playing in metal bands in general. The last years we see that they gain more and more ground and this can only be positive. Of course, I’m talking about something more than a wannabe soprano in bands that got jealous of the success of Nightwish and they think that if they put a woman up front, they will manage to build a career.
A case of an all-female band is Asagraum. More correctly, the project of Hanna Van Den Berg a.k.a. Obscura from The Netherlands on guitars, bass and vocals. It all started in 2015 with Trish Kolsvart (born in Canada, living in Norway) joining her on drums, but not for long as Amber De Buizjer took her place in 2017 and the band became Netherland-based. Actually, it’s just a duet in studio recordings with other members coming along for the live shows. So, Asagraum released their second full-length album after “Potestas Magicum Diaboli” of 2017.
From the titles and the cover art, it seems that their style is black metal. Nine compositions are here with a total running time of forty-six minutes. Mostly up-tempo with devastating drums and evil riffing. There are also some parts that they lower the tempos, but they don’t last for long. The vocals of Obscura sound amazing and the overall production gave them a raw and old-school sound, hopefully without reminding an old demo tape. A relentless black metal attack that will satisfy the fans of this sound.
