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This is the second release from Aussie band Ashen, and I never heard their debut, so I wasn't sure what I would get. I expected that Down Under dedication to heaviness and viciousness, but I didn't expect the polish this band puts into their songwriting and the production. The sound of this is massive—crunchy, bottom-heavy, but clear as a bell. This is a band much more about deliberate bludgeoning than runaway speed, but every riff sounds murderous. This has the expected pedigree of Scandinavian influences—Carnage, Entombed, Dismember—but I also hear a whole lot of God Dethroned in here, with the melodic underpinnings of the songs and the vocal approach sounding like a dead-on Serpent King. So this is just a feast for Death Metal fans, as it fucking kills in every way you want it to.