On the Wings of Inferno

On the Wings of Inferno remains one of those unexpected albums that's more impressive than you would imagine. Think about it; the year is 2000 (not exactly a hot year for doom/death metal), Martin van Drunen had left the band many years prior and Asphyx have always been an inconsistent band. If fans had lost faith in this band at this point, I wouldn't blame them.

So, it's easy to see why On the Wings of Inferno is overlooked, but fear not; it's extremely well-written and the performances are downright note-worthy. New vocalist Wannes Gubbels is no van Drunen, but you couldn't tell based on his razor sharp voice. I wish I was kidding; but the agonizing howls sound extremely identical that it’s not even funny (although certainly amusing). Unfortunately, this would be Eric Daniels’ last stand; but he’s surely delivering a worthy swansong. As usual, his riffs sound extremely simplistic, yet barbaric; bringing to mind Hellhammer / Celtic Frost during the slowest bits, as well as Obituary once the riffs spew out disgust in a proper death metal fashion.

Indeed, there’s no way that I could imagine any other band writing On the Wings of Inferno, but that’s not to say that it’s a clear copy of the Asphyx’s past few records. The production sounds louder and cleaner than that of The Rack and Last One on Earth and while I do miss the flame thrower guitar tones that made those records sound surreal, On the Wings of Inferno at least refrains from sounding too loud for its own good (a thing that would plague the band’s later records, I’m afraid). Guitars appear with precision; causing each riff to sound undeniably present, whereas drums go off with a bang in the background. It also helps that Wannes Gubbels’ vocals fit in the right spot; considering his overpowering delivery, it’s smart not to have the vocals overpowering everything else.

Best of all, Asphyx simply don’t beat around the bush with their songs. They simply sound determined to give you one hell of a good time; with no excessive sections of any sorts or overlong nonsense in mind. Like a hot driving force, ‘Summoning the Storm’ brings to mind a gruesome marriage of early Celtic Frost and familiar death metal that by 2000 seemed like a thing of the past, yet it’s clear that Asphyx's only educational background is the old school of death. ‘The Scent of Obscurity’ is a hell house of noisy leads that scream out in fright, while Wannes Gubbels howls between the Eric Daniels' trademark riffs as if Martin van Drunen had never left. Even the groaning doom sections work extremely well; not only because they're incorporated properly, but also due to the tune's short duration; something that certainly works in Asphyx's favor.

Explore this abyss further and you’ll rarely be in for any unpleasant surprises. ‘For They Ascend’ picks up with some lighter rhythm that you might have heard on Soulburn’s Feeding on Angels, but turns into a Hellhammer / Celtic Frost-driven assault soon after. It’s yet another effective, if short cut, but I’d be lying if this wouldn’t satisfy my senses. ‘Waves of Fire’ continues in frenzied mania; this savage assault of thrashing death metal conjures the image of a diabolic march again anything divine. Returning to its familiar state of making one feel doomed to death, ‘Indulge in Frenzy’ follows suite with the band’s usual formula, although I should admit that its hard knocking at the two minutes mark is among my favorite Asphyx riffs; it’s full of tension and makes a pleasant surprise in between the chunkier and speedier bits.

On the Wings of Inferno might be short, but this twenty nine record gets more done than certain albums that are twice its length. While a few annoyances appear in between; ’06.06.2006’ is a quiet interlude of no musical value whatsoever and ‘March Towards the Styx’ isn’t the atmospheric closer that I had hoped for, the songs in between remain superb. Moral of today: sometimes less is more and Asphyx certainly prove so in this case. If you’re familiar with this band, but haven’t heard this album yet, you’ve got a job to do.

This review was originally written for antichristmagazine.com

On the Wings of Inferno is probably the album I wanted The Rack to be way back in 1991. I say that with a particular bias, I know, since I was/remain such a massive advocate for Martin van Drunen's two Pestilence records, but this would be the record that most reminded me of his alma mater in its capacity for crushing, evil sounding death metal riffs that took my imagination straight back to favorites like Consuming Impulse or Death's Leprosy. Here's the twist: Martin van Drunen was nowhere to be found, and this was actually a reunion of Eric Daniels and Bob Bagchus, or rather the Soulburn lineup deciding to put that project on hold after one full-length and reform as Asphyx. Joining the pair is bassist/vocalist Wannes Gubbels, and apart from the strong riff selection, his van Drunen 'impression' is critical in why I so enjoyed this effort.

Of course, I don't wanna go so far to dub this a 'knockoff' of Consuming Impulse. The person writing the riffs is obviously not Patrick Mameli. It still retains some of that proclivity for slower, death/doom passages, and Gubbels is not 100% a doppelganger for Martin, or Loomans, for that matter. But he certainly uses the same sort of gruesome intonation, with wide, sustained growls that rise ever so slightly in pitch and mesh incredibly well with what might just be the most evil set of riffs Asphyx has ever manifest, and that all comes down to the specific note progressions used here. A tune like "The Scent of Obscurity" would not be out of place on Last One on Earth, or even one of the newer records like Deathhammer, but as simple as the tremolo picking sounds, it just captures that malevolent, raw death metal aesthetic which so drew me to the emergent genre in the later 80s. The musicianship here is hardly superior to their other albums, and I didn't enjoy Eric Daniels' leads as much as his prior outing with the band (the Asphyx s/t in 1994), but when it comes down to sheer power and memorability of the tracks, this one is up there with Last One on Earth as one of my few go-to offerings in their catalog.

Dark, deep, dank, not long on innovation but the riffs have a lot of bite and inherent brutality, thanks to the caustic timbre of Wannes Gubbels throat. Like most Asphyx records, the bass seems relegated purely to an atmospheric instrument, thickening the rhythm guitar like baking powder to gravy. Bagchus has continued to develop as a drummer to the point that you could apply him to all but the most technical death metal, I love the splash of the snares here and the low end (kicks) really thunders through the guitar tone, which is very much redolent of Last One on Earth meets Consuming Impulse and that is perfectly fine by me. There's a lot of tension and hostility to the music which still musters up comparisons to that warfare aesthetic they have in the past (and future) shared with Bolt Thrower, but it's all fairly accessible if you'd been listening to death metal in the decade leading up to it. The production is definitely dialed back from the cleaner 1994-1996 material and that's a positive, since Asphyx lost a little edge in that period and, since reclaiming it here, do not seem to have let it go, even if I haven't been blown away by the 21st century stuff.

Interestingly, On the Wings of Inferno seems to be the least known/discussed of Asphyx' discography, to the extent that I knew a few fans who actually thought Death...the Brutal Way was their first offering since the mediocre God Cries. I'd conjecture that many had just given up on the band in the late 90s and didn't really pay attention to this, but perhaps it had more limited distribution. I know I saw it when it first dropped at a popular local chain, and picked one up, but the dawn of the millennium was hardly the apex for old school death metal worship. If this had dropped in 2010 it would've been another of those messianic death metal champions for at least 2-3 weeks before people moved on to the next Autopsy or . That said, if you've somehow missed out on it, I'd highly recommend picking this up, it's every bit worthy of Last One on Earth or The Rack and it's my second favorite of their works, scratching the itch for unhinged, unfriendly antiquity when I've worn out another copy of Scream Bloody Gore or Realm of Chaos.

-autothrall
http://www.fromthedustreturned.com

Man, I have been waiting to put my hands on a vinyl copy of "On the Wings of Inferno" for years. I never managed to buy one on E-bay, usually due to lack of money and high price of it, so I had to satisfy my hunger with a CD only (which sucks if you have band’s all other albums on vinyl, right?). After the reunion of Asphyx few years ago, Century Media has re-released all their albums on CD and I guess it was only a matter of time, when someone will do that also on vinyl. And here it is! Cyclone Empire has taken a chance and unleashed this limited LP upon the mankind. Well, I know that a reprint will never be as worthy as the original pressing, but since it was quite a rare chance to get the last missing piece of black wax from Asphyx discography for a low price, I decided to do so… and bough myself a copy. Well, few things I need to say first. Like most of you, I have nothing against the repressing of old albums or demos, especially if they’re long time unavailable. It’s sometimes cool to buy something like that, especially if there’s a bonus material included and maybe an extra stuff in the booklet. There were few such re-releases, which I liked totally, like Goreaphobia, Interment, Gorement, as well as all those records from The Crypt like Purtenance or Furbowl. They look and sound amazing, so I cannot complain. But there’s one thing, which I hate about some of the reprints. It’s when they change the original front cover and replace it with another, usually worse one. One such example is Merciless’ “The Treasures Within” CD/LP. And Asphyx’s "On the Wings of Inferno" is another. I know that also other Asphyx CD re-releases from Century Media got different artworks, but I cannot understand that. Front cover is an important detail of the album, it’s the first thing, which make you recognise it, right? Changing it then is a risky game that usually makes me angry. This is the case with "On the Wings of Inferno" re-release. LP repress has the same new artwork as Century Media’s new CD and I hate it. OK, it may look cool and definitely fits the style of obscure death metal in 666%. But I like the original front cover of "On the Wings of Inferno" much more and I think that it should be here! Even if you couldn’t put it in the front, do so inside then! Unfortunately there’s no sign of it anywhere. Luckily, inside of the gatefold looks very well – with short info from Bob Bagchus, few live photos (which definitely is cool) and the lyrics. But where’s the original front cover, for fuck sake? As for the bonus live material that this LP (as well as CD) includes, well, I’ll make a comment on that later. But also here I’m very disappointed.

Because I've already written reviews of every other Asphyx record in the past months, it's not much really left to say about this band's style and music that I haven't said earlier. Asphyx is one and only; cult which not many other bands can rival. They have their own recognisable style of riffing and even if certain records have been recorded with major line up changes and introduced some additional influences in band's death metal sound, they were still very characteristic for Asphyx. And "On the Wings of Inferno" - after two slightly different albums and third one, which was recorded under the name Soulburn - takes the band back into the past and links them with some of their most classic tunes, from "The Rack" and "Last One on Earth" LPs. Really, musically it is equally devastating and stylistically so close to them that all die hard Asphyx fans must have been shitting their pants when listening to "On the Wings of Inferno". Already the first track "Summoning the Storm" sounds like a division of tanks going slowly through the occupied towns and turning them into ruins. The riffs here are simply excellent, Eric Daniels definitely made them all sound as old school as possible and the atmosphere is just amazing. Wannes Gubbels did good job on Soulburn's record, but here his vokills are even better, he sounds 100% like van Drunen and fits Asphyx style better than any other vocalist would. And definitely better than Ron van Pol. Absolutely killer.

Basically every song on the album sounds great to me. If it's "The Scent of Obscurity", which has killer doomy part or if it's the title track with that catchy riff in the beginning and great mixture of doomy riffs and some of the mid paced ones, or "Marching Towards the Styx" with that monumental melody that leads this song all the way through, it doesn't matter. Everything is extremely vicious, brutal and makes every maniac bang his head with no mercy. Asphyx has great ability to create amazing, simple, but fuckin aggressive riffs, some of which are very slow and doomy, some other may have its origin way back in the 80’s on Hellhammer / Celtic Frost records, while few are classic death metal, only far from that technical stuff that 90% of the bands from that genre play. It’s Eric Daniels’ great skills and original style of playing; a major factor for creating Asphyxiated sound and I love his way of playing guitar leads, which usually are kind of melancholic, sorrowful and epic melodies, which fill the riff wonderfully. Anyway, "On the Wings of Inferno" is a classic Asphyx album, one which I can recommend totally. Mind that it was released at the time, when death metal was in relatively bad condition, most of the old bands were either dead or have changed so much that they were nothing but a shit under a shoe and only very few like Dismember, Vader, Morbid Angel or Fleshcrawl were still able to release good albums. And Asphyx managed to put out one of their better records at that turbulent time. Not bad at all.

I mentioned something about the extra material on the second disc. While it's always great to get some bonus tracks, here I must say I'm more than suspicious that the label putted anything they had, just for the fuckin sake of having bonus tracks, no matter if they're worth anything or not. Unfortunately, the live recording from 2000 (with 10 classic Asphyx songs) was promising, but disappointed me totally, as the sound quality of it is just poor. Listenable, but poor, at times just shitty and for such band as Asphyx I think it is not good. If it was going to bring some more attention to this re-issue, then I guess many fans must have caught the bait. But I think the label made us all fools. Personally I don’t like that content of bonus record and didn’t even bother to listen to all the songs.

So, to resume this reprint of the classic Asphyx album: I’m happy to own it on LP finally, but I would definitely change few things: used to original front cover especially and probably didn’t bother with the useless live recordings. Anyway, I don’t regret buying it and who knows, maybe one day I’ll have a chance to buy a first pressing vinyl?

Standout tracks: "Summoning the Storm", The Scent of Obscurity", "On the Wings of Inferno"
Final rate: music: 90/100, but I would give only 30 for change of the original cover and 10 for useless bonus live recording

This one completely slipped through the cracks somehow, and it's already very difficult to track down a copy. (Thank whatever divine or infernal being for eBay.) But I say this to you old school death metal fans: don't miss this one.

This is the best Asphyx album since "Last One On Earth," maybe even since "The Rack." They've regained some focus - the old dark, doom-infused sound - and added a major new player in Wannes Gubbels, who also sings for Pentacle and contributed greatly to the success of their excellent "Under The Black Cross" album. His voice is as excellent here as it is for Pentacle, a growling crossbreed of John Tardy and previous Asphyx singer Martin van Drunen.

There's no need to single out a lot of individual tracks here, as 1. there aren't that many, and 2. they are all of very high caliber. I will say though that the opener "Summoning The Storm" reveals all the album's strengths right up front. It's fast at times - not blasting fast, but old school freight-train fast - with a heavy, doomy middle section that bludgeons you with one of the album's most memorable riffs and thunderous drums. Here and throughout the album, the percussion is loud and bass-heavy, the guitar is grinding and nasty, and Gubbels growls dementedly over the top of it all in a cavernous (but not overdone) reverb. It's a decidedly 1990-ish sound, and it really works.

Add some terrific cover art, and this is a release you shouldn't miss - even if you did when it first came out.