If you were to list off the first few countries that came to mind when discussing the development of metal as a genre, I’d bet you a fairly hefty amount of money that Singapore wouldn’t be among them. Scant are the big names that hail from one of the world’s largest city-states, but The Wandering Ascetic are here to change that with their debut full-length record Crimson. Filled to the brim with enough thrash-infused black/death metal to melt your face off in perpetuity, the band unleash a veritable onslaught of pain on their first proper outing. Today, we are beyond excited to be premiering “Assassins”, the penultimate track from said record. So buckle up. It’s about to get heavy.
Born from the bones of Rudra (another fantastic, criminally underrated band from Singapore), The Wandering Ascetic take a fairly direct approach to their chosen styles of audio chaos and destruction. But don’t take that to mean that their compositions are simple. “Assassins” deftly mixes black metal riffing with thrash-heavy sections that tread into second wave meets Bay Area territory. The band maintains quality in these disparate elements by presenting their ideas in a carefully measured rhythm that allows the listener to easily pick up each of their respective genre influences. It’s a smooth, gnarly bruiser of a track that should feed the blackened souls of thrash and black metal lovers alike.
The Wandering Ascetic are onto something special on their debut record, and I can’t wait for you all to hear it in its full glory. Until then, feast on the delectable morsels that “Assassins” provides. I do believe you’ll find yourselves satisfied. Crimson drops tomorrow via the unstoppable Transcending Obscurity Records.