Artist: ASP
Title: ENDLiCH!
Genre: Gothic Novel Rock
Release Date: 26th November 2021
Label: Trisol Music Group
Album Review
With their latest release ‘ENDLiCH!’ the dark novelists of ASP close their ‘Fremder’ story cycle. The album comes in various physical versions and digital formats, some providing several bonus tracks. The beginning of the ‘Fremder’ story started over a decade ago and the releases in between all had signature ASP elements but new approaches became audible during the last years. Part five starts with a very long intro called ‘Bedenke gut’ that leads over into ‘Was Du Dir wünschst’ that immediately gets a grip of lovers of melancholic stories. The band continues merging more and more Metal elements into their signature melodic approach.
Again, there are two English tracks like on the first release of this story cycle ‘Fremd’ (‘The Eternal Stranger’ and ‘Raise Some Hell Now!’). Once in a while some English parts in songs that come with otherwise German lyrics like in ‘Spät’ or ‘Tor’. If you are a long-time ASP fan, you might feel reminded of the time when ‘Schmetterling’ was released, for the approach music and lyric-wise resembles this era a bit. If you love poems, pay close attention to ‘Ziel’ which would be a wonderful poem for a reading even without the music in the background, while the music as such would also be wonderful listening to without the lyrics.
The last song of the regular tracks, which is ‘Tor’ comes with fantastic guitar work and interesting string parts, that are rather new to the ASP cosmos, but fit the story perfectly. If the English lyrics in the closing track are a wise choice, listeners must judge for themselves. The lyrics and also the underlining music come with a quite optimistic mood for ASP’s standards which is a welcome distraction in these rather dark and uncertain times, but don’t get me wrong, the album is not a light fare for the listener, but definitely worth listening through several times to catch all the details and understand the underlying story and all the emotion the music might wake.
The 3-CD Digipack also comes with a bonus CD that includes the single edits of ‘ENDLiCH!’ and ‘Raise Some Hell Now!’ as well as ‘Echo’ by masters of the dark genre LORD OF THE LOST, but the most interesting ones are the tracks ASP recorded in collaboration with other artists, for they show that ASP are ready to leave their signature sound approach behind and open up to the styles and approaches of other artists to their stories and music.
All in all, a solid release, but it makes sense to listen to the previous chapters of the cycle before diving into the new stories and the quite versatile music on ‘ENDLiCH!’. ASP scheduled a tour for spring, so if you want a live experience, check out their website for updates.
Tracklist
CD1
01. Intro: Bedenke gut
02. Was Du Dir wünschst
03. Echo
04. The Eternal Stranger
05. Ziel
06. Seerosenblüten von Einst
07. Ausgewachsener Albdruck (Fremde Träume III)
CD2
01. ENDLiCH!
02. Ruine (FremdkörPerson, viertens)
03. Spät
04. Widmung
05. Raise Some Hell Now!
06. Begleitung (Bedenke gut Instrumentalreprise)
07. Tor
CD3
01. Age Of The Hurricanes (Two Minds Collide feat. ASP)
02. Seemansgarnknäuel (DELVA feat. ASP)
03. Rooftop. Legs Yet Dangling. (Cassadi feat. ASP)
04. Echo (Lord Of The Lost Version)
05. ENDLiCH! (Single Edit)
06. Raise Some Hell Now! (Single Edit)
Line-up
Alexander Spreng - Vocals
Tobias Engel – Bass
Sören Jordan – Lead Guitar
Lutz Demmler – Guitar, Backing Vocals
Stefan Günther – Drums
Website
https://www.aspswelten.de/
Cover Picture
Rating
Music: 8
Sound: 8
Total: 8 / 10
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