An Asphyxiating Embrace by Ronguer
Release date: June 1, 2018Label: Poacher Records / Ampmandens Records
Norse trio Rongeur is described as a sludge/doom band, which is certainly the style of music that makes up the majority of tracks on the band’s debut album An Asphyxiating Embrace, however, they forgot to mention the addition of a thick slab of noise rock that really ties everything together perfectly.
It’s this noise rock sound that makes An Asphyxiating Embrace a very captivating release, as it pushes their sludge/doom sound into a slight different territory, making them stand out a bit from the massive pile of bands attempting to create music under the sludge/doom banner. It’s as if Årabrot and Eyehategod had a big hairy chested bearded baby.
An Asphyxiating Embrace, I assume the album is named after its crushing heaviness, starts sludgey with ‘Weltschmerz’ and builds up steadily through 8 tracks of well-crafted heaviness. It’s a bit of a slow builder though, with the second half of the album balancing a bit more on the interesting side, but only just. To this noise rock fan the last couple of tracks bring a bit more dynamics and variation to the album.
It’s hard to name a favourite track as all 8 album tracks have something to offer, though ‘Wellpisser’ and ‘Mr Hands’ would be great starting points to get an idea what Rongeur has to offer on An Asphyxiating Embrace.
The album is released on a couple of different vinyl pressings, cassette and the usual digital format. Fans of heaviness, check it out.
