Ashen Mortality
Your Caress / Sleepless Remorse

Posted by Andrew F.

Ashen Mortality was formed in early 1993 by Ian Arkely (guitar and vocals) and Melanie Bolton (vocals and keyboard). Their original line up also included Tim Cooper on bass and Ben Jones on drums, although through their career, their line-up for drummer changed often. They released two demos, followed by two full-length albums, Sleepless Remorse and Your Caress. During 2000-2003 the band hibernated, and in 2004 came back to life, playing live gigs in the UK. They unexpectedly broke up in 2005 for good, and have reissued their two full-length albums in one package.

Musically
I have to say I was thoroughly excited when this CD was sent to me. The idea of European death metal band was mouth-watering, and I couldn’t wait to dive into it. Overall it is a slow, thundering album chock full of heavy riffing, wonderful solos, haunting keyboards, and epic song lengths. The track My Reflections is over 10 minutes long! The overall style of this album is death metal with strong doom metal influences. The songs aren’t played very fast, as is common with doom metal. Probably my favorite track is “In Empty Eyes”, which features the best guitar riffs, drumming, and overall quality. The album features two ballads as well, “Broken Bonds” and “Our Eden”. Both feature female vocals from Melanie and medieval-style acoustic guitar from Ian. This is a solid album, but something seems to be missing from a few of the songs.  The second disc is more raw in production.

Vocally/Lyrically
There are three styles of vocals: a sweet serenading voice by Melanie, a low death metal growl by Ian, and a very deep singing by Ian as well. The deep singing is used very often on Your Caress and will take some getting used to for many people. The growls that he emits are thick and remind me a lot of old-school In Flames at times. “In Empty Eyes” features mostly growling, hence it is my favorite track. He sings well, but for the style I feel the growling fits much better. Melanie is a beautiful singer, and I could listen to her forever. She provides good background vocals and really shines when she’s the main vocalist. Lyrically this album deals with a lot of different subjects, but at heart it is still a Christian album. “Broken Bonds” and “Your Caress” deal with issues of broken love; “In Empty Eyes” deals with the decline of our society, and “My Reflections” deals with the rape of a young girl. These are some tough issues, and I’m glad the band took them on. There are written very well and have a very poetic feel to them.

Overall this is a solid album worth checking out. There are a few weak moments, but it will grow on you. Thumbs up.