Askara - 2022 - Lights of Night

(52:08; Fastball Music)

Track list:
1. The Birth of a Star 1:29
2. Nocturne of Cold Mystery 4:45
3. Through Fire 5:48
4. By God 4:30
5. To Ailsa Rock 8:57
6. Reprise: Harbor Lights 1:59
7. Hibernation 5:28
8. Dark Night of the Soul Pt. I 4:18
9. Seven Years 4:58
10. Viator 3:53
11. The King's Song 6:03

Line-up:
Raphael Gruenig - drums
Benjamin Wiesli - guitars, vocals
Elia Schmidt - vocals, bass
Miril Schmidt - vocals, piano
with:
Judith Stuber - cello


Swiss band Askara has been around for around a decade at this point, and released their debut album "Horizon of Hope'' back in 2016. Following a succession of single releases the band released their second album "Lights of Night" in the spring of 2022 through German label Fastball Music.

This is a production that has been made with a fairly strong, distinct and uniform focus in mind from what I can hear: To make use of distinct contrasts between light and dark and between the harsh and the beautiful. The vocals are the key element dictating form and manner, in a style of music that to my mind is best described as a dramatic variety of atmospheric laden metal.

The essential features, or the two extremes here if you like, is the use of female lead vocals typically supported by flowing movements and male harsh vocals supported by a more staccato, powerful and dramatic guitar riff driven arrangement. We get plenty of songs where the primary focus is the latter, a few where this second extreme is more in focus, and several songs that combine these traits in one way or the other. It should also be noted that the more flowing movement typically accompanying the vocals of Miril Schmidt may either be of a gentle, more piano driven nature or a more majestic guitar driven nature with piano support, while the harsher sections tend to stick to arrangements with the use of powerful and bombastic guitar riffs as the clearly dominant aspect.

In between the extremes the band will typically explore various combinations of sounds and arrangements here, with the more neutral passages typically sporting a majestic flowing arrangement with a wandering piano motif in support, and fairly often with subtle alterations of this arrangement when the harsher male or melodic female lead vocals enters the fray and switching back to a more neutral mode again when both vocalists are present. I also note than on the cut 'Dark Night of the Soul Pt. I' I get the impression that the use of contrasts has been eased up just a little bit, and making the song all the more appealing due to that. The differences here are very much in the subtle department mind you, and possibly a perception that also comes due to this song being placed in between songs very different in character. But if this is an effect of a difference in composition or perception due to album placement, it does stand out a bit just the same.

In addition to this use of stark contrasts some of the songs will have a slight symphonic or classical music undercurrent, both due to the piano motifs having a bit of a classical music orientation to them but also due to the additional and occasional use of strings.

The rather black and white nature of this production does give it a bit more of a love or hate dimension than what is usually the case for an album I suspect, and the use of harsh vocals with a presumed extreme metal origin is also a detail that for some will be one either totally accepted or not at all enjoyed. Those who treasure metal with a more stark black and white contrast as a key element throughout and who tend to enjoy theatrical and dramatic metal explored inside of an atmospheric context will probably love this album to bits though, and those who can recognize themselves in such a description should have a good chance of discovering a new gem for their headphones with this album.

Olav M. Björnsen, April 2022

Links:
https://www.facebook.com/Askaraband
http://www.fastball-music.de/