Album review: Asinhell – Impii Hora
Volbeat mainman Michael Poulsen goes back to his bloody death metal roots with heavy side-band Asinhell.
Upon the unveiling of Asinhell, Michael Poulsen raised no shortage of eyebrows. As frontman with Danish mega-band Volbeat, his usual street is one of big, sing-alongy, vaguely-punky rock with a big coif. And here he was, announcing that he had a death metal band. Moreover, the influences he reeled off with it showed he knew his onions: “Bolt Thrower, Entombed, Autopsy, Grave, Darkthrone – they're the reason why we can do this in the first place.”
You shouldn’t be that surprised, though. This isn’t even the big man’s first death metal band, having released four albums with Dominus in the ’90s, pre-Volbeat. So it is that he knows what he’s doing with a riff on Impii Hora, the debut from Asinhell, rounded out by sandpaper-throated former-Morgoth singer Marc Grewe, and Morten Toft Hansen, drummer with fellow Danes Raunchy.
Though perhaps a little cleaner than some might like, fans of early ’90s death will find plenty to get their teeth into here. Desert Of Doom has the classic Bolt Thrower mid-paced chug absolutely down, Inner Sancticide is basically a love letter to Entombed, and Island Of Dead Men is a thrashing attack straight from the Unleashed school of doing this stuff with minimal fuss and maximum punch. It sounds like they’re having a hoot while they’re doing it as well.
Impii Hora is a blood-scrawled love letter to death metal, made by a trio of total heads. It makes loads of obvious nods to their heroes, and it’s all the better for it. Although they missed a trick not calling it (Vol)beaten To Death…
Verdict: 3/5
For fans of: Bolt Thrower, Gatecreeper, Entombed
Impii Hora is released on September 29 via Metal Blade