Artist: Aspaarn
Country: Switzerland
Label: Self-Released
Formats: LP
Year: 2025
‘Oblation In Atrocity’ is Aspaarn’s fourth album in about as many years, and just like the majority of the band’s earlier work this one too is presented on a self-released piece of vinyl. Something that is, according to some accompanying text, not a conscious choice but born of necessity, seemingly no label was interested in releasing this album (nor any of the previous ones). But, Aspaarn’s Raw Black Metal is far from lacking in appeal and qualitatively it stands its ground without question as well. Fortunately, Solaris Lupus, the man behind this one-man operation, is not backing down and takes matters into his own hands.
Although the music on offer is definitely not inferior to many of its peers, it is also quite clear that Aspaarn is not here to reinvent or redefine the genre. Raw Black Metal, with its quite narrow musical framework, is not quite the genre that’s easy to experiment with without straying too far off its key characteristics. So, now that we’ve been through that disclaimer, if you weren’t already familiar with the band’s earlier output, that is, let’s talk music.
Compared to Aspaarn’s previous full-length outing, ‘When Iron Went Survival’, this newest record offers a slightly different musical setting. ‘Oblation In Atrocity’ by far isn’t as harsh and Lo-Fi as its predecessor and, most importantly, the somewhat rocking song structure is traded for a far more atmospheric approach. While Atmospheric Black Metal is usually connected with keyboard-heavy acts, Aspaarn is built with the basic instruments. The ambiance is carried forward entirely by Solaris Lupus’ sense for dark and oppressive song writing as well as by the overall production. The latter is characterized by the distinctive and somewhat standard sandpaper sound, but by the dynamics in the drums in particular, but also by the rather icy folky impact of the melodies, the whole gets a very gloomy character. Thereby, the alternations between the icy and thundering vocals gives extra depth and adds to the experience that fits well with the record cover.
The album is not completely free of keyboards, as some of the band’s trademark Ambient has made it to ‘Oblation In Atrocity’ too. This is limited only to the margins of the album, but both those Ambient passages and also the acoustic pieces and Folky melodies contribute more than enough to the overall soundscape. But an extra mention of the closing, nearly ten-minute track is in order. In terms of creativity, ‘All Reaching Misery’ takes the crown and shows Aspaarn at its most stunning. The further the song progresses the more beautiful and impressive the darkness, Ritual Ambient and even 80’s Dark Wave song structures emerge and make this the best work Aspaarn has produced so far.
This album might have a more “open” sound, which doesn’t only allow the music to feel slight more accessible (relatively speaking) it surely also reveals more details, but stayed really close to the band’s tried-and-tested gritty formula. This means that those who were previously enamored with Aspaarn will no doubt be so again now, but it is also clear that Solaris Lupus has taken a substantial step in further shaping his musical vision. True, as a whole, it may not win an originality award, but clearly it was never about that either; the award for best record in the discography is hereby handed out.
