In 2017, Asira released one of the most underrated post-black metal albums I've ever heard. Since then, there has been relative radio silence from the project until August of this year, when a new single dropped and As Ink In Water was announced. As soon as I heard of it, I pounced on the opportunity to snag the next premiere for ourselves and excitedly pressed play. What I found was definitely Asira, still grounded in their dreamy and melodic core, but much darker and more intense than ever before. The result is an even more effective version of Asira's approach to post-black metal, blending plenty of progressive metal and death to boot. Head on down for your own taste!
There's so much happening on this track. Of course, the abrasive, high-pitched initial vocals are what first draws your attention. But later on, there are beautiful guitar leads reminiscent of Opeth, the return of the signature clean vocals which made the previous album so beautiful, and an absolutely stunning interlude as its middle passage. This builds up into the track's outro, resplendent in that melodic, sweeping sound that I love Asira for. The overall impression is of a band doubling down on what made them great to begin with while simultaneously pushing themselves into darker, more aggressive realms.
As Ink in Water drops on November 14th and you can head on over to their Bandcamp link below to pre-order it. Make sure you don't sleep on this one; Asira are set to leave their mark on post-black yet again.