ASGÅRD – On The Verge

Russia is a land you know for caviar and vodka rather than Metal music. Since Gorky Park first opened the market for Heavy music in Russia in the late 80s, there have been a lot of bands following in their footsteps. Yet there are not many Russian bands that have created an international name, but the Power Metalers in Asgård will do something about that in the coming time. They have just released their debut album entitled On The Verge.

“Sermon Of Mephistopheles” is the opener of On The Verge. It’s driven by pompous keyboards and screaming guitar-lines. In some places they even remind you a little of the Finnish Symphonic Metalers in Nightwish. It’s a great starter and is followed by the much faster “Greedy, Thieving Weaklings.” The keyboards on this one can sometimes remind you of the Brazilian Power Metal band Shamaan, maybe because of the very similar sound.

The third song on this album is entitled “She Wolf” and this is the song where keyboardist Alexander Pigarev shows of his fantastic keyboard skills by playing a great shred solo. Again, they manage to create a great song combined with heavy riffing and a superb chorus. From there the album continues into “The Room Of Nowhere,” which is maybe the greatest song on the record! The ending two minutes is a pure epic masterpiece.

From there it gets a little nowhere-going, but all of sudden an unexpected piece of music blasts out through the loudspeakers; the most experimental tune that appears on this album, which is the instrumental “Presto Evolution In G-Dur.” It starts out fast in a Neo-Classical way with a great guitar showing off. Wonder if the guitarist is inspired by the Swedish guitar virtuoso Yngwie Malmsteen? Both guitar and keyboard get to show of their jamming qualities at the end of this one with a more Bluesy style of playing — very fun listening.

The song material on this record is high quality music, but there are always some exceptions, like the ballads “Frozen Void” and “Wave Of Destiny,” which are totally insignificant and going absolutely nowhere. The band itself does a chimerical job during the entire album, but the vocalist; Alexander Savchenko, is the very weak spot on this record, singing with a terrible vibrato and horrible accent. Sure it’s a little charming listening to his way of singing English, but through the entire album it’s more than enough. When singing in the low register, he does even remind you a little of the Norwegian singer Dag Ingebrigtsen (ex-TNT, ex-Tindrum) and that’s not a compliment! The production is great with respect to all instruments except the drums that sound like boxes, especially the snare drum.

All in all; On The Verge is an impressive debut album. It’s full of energetic riffs and mind-sticking melodies, and enters the market as one of the finest debut records so far this year. It will be very exciting to hear something new from Asgård in up-coming times.