(written by Islander)
Today we are most happy to renew your acquaintance with the Dutch black metal band Asgrauw, a member of the Zwotte Kring circle whose music we’ve enthusiastically covered since the fall of 2017. Although their recording history precedes our discovery of them back then, we’ve been playing close attention ever since.
Following relatively soon on the heels of their sixth album Oorsprong, which was discharged in 2024, Asgrauw have a new album for us this year. Its name is Solips, and it will be released by a collective of labels on different formats (we have details at the end of this feature).
The music of Asgrauw has always been lyrically thought-provoking, and their changing lyrical interests haven’t been predictable. One of their labels sums up the subject matter of the new album this way:
Seven albums in, and Asgrauw still doesn’t give a damn about your expectations. Solips is a reckoning, a brutal, unflinching dive into the abyss of perception. You want answers? You’ll get questions. You want comfort? You’ll get the cold, unyielding truth: reality is yours alone to define…. Doubt everything. Question everything. Solips is here.
As an example of what Solips delivers, today we’re premiering a video for a song called “Confabulatie“.
We’ll share these further words, which provide further insight into the new album’s inspirations and themes:
Oorsprong (2024) rewrote humanity’s origins through the myth of the Anunnaki, Asgrauw now turns their gaze inward. Perception. Observation. Time. Experience. How do you know what you see is real? How do you know anyone else sees the same thing? An attack on the illusion of shared reality.
With regard to the song we’re about to premiere, we have these words from Asgrauw:
Confabulatie: is the creation of false memories or fabrication without the conscious intention to deceive. People who do this genuinely believe their invented stories are true, the brain is just filling gaps in memory. If our minds can invent the past, how do we trust our memories or anyone else’s? Maybe reality is only a convenient lie.
The video is mainly devoted to Asgrauw’s fiery performance of the song in less than opulent surroundings, combined with a few other bloody images that connect to the song’s subject matter.
The music is unrelentingly intense, as are the vocals. The drums go full-throttle; the bass generates a feverish throb that hammers as fast as the drumming; the riffing sears like fire; the two vocalists scream as if possessed.
But the song includes one other key ingredient — vast cascades of synths — and that performance isn’t included in the video because Asgrauw’s synthesist Batr is also the drummer, and so far at least, he can’t be in two places at once. Those sweeping waves of melody are grand, even classically elegant, but also anguished in their mood, a kind of musical overlay that’s distressing as well as wondrous.
Within that tidal tumult, a fervent horn reaches up, the lead guitar violently flashes and vibrantly flickers, and the drumming constantly creates rhythmic shifts with precision. All in all, it’s a breathtaking experience from beginning to end.
ASGRAUW is:
Kaos – Bass, Vocals & Words
Vaal – Guitars & Vocals
Batr – Drums & Synths
Solips was recorded, mixed, and mastered by Batr, and it features cover art by Ronarg. The horns heard on “Confabulatie” were performed by Izzy.
Solips will be released by different labels on different formats, with Void Wanderer Productions (NL) providing other merchandise for the album. You can find all of that via the links below. They recommend the music for fans of: Sargeist, Horna, Tsjuder, and Drudkh.
Also below, you’ll find a stream of the previously released single “Schaduwganger“, the theme of which Asgrauw describe this way:
After death the brain can remain active for 30–120 seconds, with sporadic activity reported up to seven minutes. In that brief dream state a whole life can be experienced in minutes. Maybe that’s what people mean when they say their life flashes before them. Maybe, in those last flickers, we relive our life or live another one.
PRE-ORDER:
Vinyl Classic Black: https://www.zwaertgevegt.nl/product/asgrauw-solips-12-black-vinyl/
Vinyl Color: https://www.zwaertgevegt.nl/product/asgrauw-solips-12-red-blue-swirl/
CD: https://zerodimensionalrecords.bigcartel.com/product/hmpcd
Tape: https://www.zwaertgevegt.nl/product/asgrauw-solips/
US Tapes: https://www.jemslabel.com/product/asgrauw-solips-cassette-preorder
Shirts: https://voidwanderer.com/product/asgrauw-solips-merch-preorder
Digital: https://asgrauw.bandcamp.com/
ASGRAUW:
Website: https://linktr.ee/Asgrauw
Bandcamp: https://asgrauw.bandcamp.com/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/asgrauw
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/asgrauw
Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/artist/6Y8fpNzKbqsJzwjJoePzNe
ZWOTTE KRING:
Website: https://linktr.ee/zwottekring
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100086941449166
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/zwotte_kring