(Doom/Death Metal) Asphodelus - Discography (2 WEB) - 2016-2017, FLAC (tracks), lossless

After two critically acclaimed releases through IRON BONEHEAD PRODUCTIONS - 2013's Shadows From the Cemetery demo and 2014's Towards the Gates MLP - Finland's Cemetery Fog are reborn as ASPHODELUS. Now expanded to a trio, ASPHODELUS will release their first record in this incarnation, a four-song 12" MLP titled Dying Beauty & the Silent Sky, through IRON BONEHEAD. Between those two aforementioned releases, Cemetery Fog made huge evolutionary strides - from doomy death metal, raw and rough-hewn, to a more magisterial and daresay graceful form of pure doom-death - and ASPHODELUS continue that evolution with their debut mini-album. The three expansive tracks (and obligatorily somber intro) of Towards the Gates & the Silent Sky show that the band are not totally tethered to the usual doom-death tropes - particularly those of the early '90s UK scene - and now can incorporate the mournful mysticism of classic Greek black metal, like early Septic Flesh and Horrified. Meanwhile, from this majestic canvas often explode sparkling Bathorian leads, guiding the atmosphere from sorrow to triumph. ASPHODELUS were young as Cemetery Fog and still may be, but their confidence and ambition in this new guise are immediately apparent on Dying Beauty & the Silent Sky - and they're just getting started, once again. (c)