Artist: Barshasketh
Country: New Zealand
Label: W.T.C. Productions
Formats: LP / CD
Year: 2025
Besides a couple of splits, Barshasketh released no less than five albums in fifteen years, still I am amazed by how little appreciation this band gets. Even with the back-up of the revered quality W.T.C. Productions label, for their last split and three full-length albums, this new one included, the band seems to fly largely under everyone’s radar – or at least, they seem to get rarely mentioned. Admittedly, I too am not equally familiar with everything from the band, and I had never even heard the older/first work, but the quality that Barshasketh brings to the table in no way warrants this grim neglect. If you’re into forceful Black Metal with strong Death Metal textures and overall occult aesthetics: brace yourself.
With not even clocking 45 minutes, ‘Antinomian Asceticism’ is not an overly long record, but it might very well be that this album feels much longer. Usually when an album leaves such a feeling I experience that as a drawback, but in this case it has nothing to do with overly drawn-out songs or otherwise miserable musical intrusions. Quite on the contrary even. On previous records Barshasketh, originally founded in Wellington, New Zealand, but now residing in the UK, already showed their impeccable craftsmanship when it comes to forging a sort of Black Metal that gives you very little breathers, but this time the band clearly stepped up an extra notch on that particular matter.
‘Antinomian Asceticism’ is a record that holds many a secret that will only reveal itself after multiple listens. It indeed does require a bit of perseverance and determination, but once you’re there you are in for a treat. The band doesn’t only deliver their art in a pitch black guise, but it has basically every shade of black. All of these individual elements is magically woven together into a whirling mass that, as if it’s alive, creeps and crawls in every possible direction. But, and here comes the crux of Barshasketh’s musical secret: it doesn’t sound experimental at all; the band keeps everything well within the Black Metal confines, it’s just that the complexity of the songs that makes the music so enticing and otherworldly dark.
The constant shifting of pace, from the fast and furious parts to those slow and toilsome doomy passages, both add much to the overall dynamic experience. But, it is within this dynamic rhythmic landscape that the guitarists and bassist show that they are equally well talented: eerie melodies, ever-changing riffs and sudden turnaround in patterns and structures often reminds me on Sinmara’s amazing debut album. But, while Barshasketh is definitely another beast, the band fits the W.T.C. Productions’ roster like no other. The label is increasingly becoming a synonymous with unsettling and utterly ingenious Black Metal. So, take the plunge, if you dare…
