Hailing from Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA, Atmospheric Black Metal band ASHBRINGER present their fifth album here titled "Subglacial." The album has six songs. "My Flesh Shows its Weakness" is first. It leads in slowly, with some ambient tones, until the Black Metal aggression breaks through and explodes. But even in the madness, there are melancholy tones of hope. Fleeting…but present. Though only one song in, this is out-of-the box Black Metal. "Warning Conviction" is another that eases in. The band is great at capturing your attention with warm, ambient tones, before dropping the executioner's axe on your neck. The vocals rage with anger, with despair, and with pain, and the music holds a steady but very somber tone.

The title track might be the crown jewel on the album. Opening with clean, melodic tones, they segue into a warm groove. The transition to aggressive tones is quite jarring, but the band manages to leave the melody in tow for the segue. "Fleeing into Portals" is another song with a gentle and smooth entrance, but if the previous songs taught you anything, you can expect a deluge. It starts with a firm rain, and then winds begin to pick up, the skies darken, and it roars with the deafening sounds of thunderclaps, before it passes over you as quick as it started. "Send Him to the Lake" bring the rage and despair a little sooner, and that main riff is super aggressive. The vocals burn with an intensity like a wild fire spreading out of control.

"Vessels" is the final song, and the wall of riffs is quite melodic. The sound undulates between melody and rage, yin and yang, light and darkness, and the transitions are seamless here. This was an excellent album. Black Metal is such an expansive genre these days, so why wouldn't bands take advantage of ever widening boundaries? ASHBRINGER do on "Subglacial" for sure. There are wonderful surprises around evert corner. My only real complaint about the album is the production. Although you can sometimes hear a muted or an overly treble production in the genre, neither often do the sound justice.