Copenhagen’s Phrenelith has been among the finest purveyors of death metal in recent years. They, among many Danish counterparts, have garnered acclaim and notoriety for their fierce and festering styles of extreme metal. The band is over three years removed from their last full-length album, Chimaera–plenty of time to flesh out how their third full-length, Ashen Womb, would build on their efforts while maintaining their ethos.
“It was important to us to not repeat ourselves and instead do something markedly different from both Desolate Endscape and Chimaera, while still retaining a signature sound that would be familiar both to our own perception of the band and to longtime fans…” Simon Daniel (guitars/vocals) says in response to questions from Decibel.
Simon describes the band’s desire to “delve back into the raw spontaneity and unrestrained immediacy” of their early releases. He also cites the “greater emphasis on creating atmosphere on Chimaera” as a guide to their approach when writing Ashen Womb. He states, “Ashen Womb is the culmination of all the musical traits we have acquired in the band’s decade-long lifespan–and seemingly prove as an ideal middle path between the two previous albums.”
The Danish death dealers deliver on their newest album. Lead singles “A Husk Wrung Dry” and “Stagnated Blood” are excellent primers for expectations, but digging deeper into its 40-minute runtime shows a band delivering on their goals. “Nebulae” showcases a triplet rhythm and reflective atmosphere around a pummeling swing in a time signature that Simon recalls, “There’s something about the part that just feels like taking a chainsaw to the guts, or getting hit by a freight train!”
Phrenelith also finally committed one of their most-played live tracks to the album on Ashen Womb. “Chrysopoeia,” the album’s penultimate track, has been a staple of the band’s setlist for almost eight years. “It was good to finally record it and shape it into its final form,” says Daniel.
The album holds many special moments for him, and he describes how the writing and recording process differed from previous years. “We had allowed ourselves more time than usual, and the recording engineer is a longtime friend of ours who made sure we were always performing our best.”
Other special moments came from the feeling of, as Daniel describes, “how good it felt even when the songs were stripped down and we were just rocking out with the purpose of capturing the drums,” and “getting to take the time to immerse myself in the recording was probably my favourite aspect of it all.”
When asked what he hopes fans and listeners of Ashen Womb take away from the album, Daniel concludes, “Ultimately, I hope the listener will form their own interpretation of the album and its lyrics. I have always enjoyed listening to people’s take on the different elements that make up the records. However, as pretentious as it might sound, I really hope the record will facilitate a profound musical experience for the listener. I certainly tried to form the record as a continuous journey – for lack of better words – so I hope people will mostly listen to it in its entirety to properly take it in. I also always thought our releases were stronger as a whole than the sum of its parts. We spend a lot of time crafting something that has a certain ebb and flow, and that will form a musical narrative that could be understood even without the lyrics.”
Ashen Womb arrives this Friday through Dark Descent Records and Me Saco Un Ojo Records. Listen to Ashen Womb in its entirety exclusively at Decibel and pre-order a copy today before the official release.